MEIsT OF OUR DAY; 



OR, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



OF 



PATRIOTS, ORATORS, STATESMEN, GENERALS, REFORMERS, 
FINANCIERS AND MERCHANTS, 

NOW ON THE STAGE OF ACTION: 

INCLUDINa 



THOSE WHO IX MILITARY, POLITICAL, BUSINESS AND 

SOCIAL LIFE, ARE THE PROMINENT LEADERS 

UF THE TIME IN THIS COUNTRY. 



BY n. p. BROCKETT, M. D., 

ADTHOR OF " OUrc GREAT CAPTAINS," "WOMKN's WORK IN THF, CIVIL WAR," 
"life and times op ABRAHAM LINCOLN." "THE BIOCR APHICAL POR- 
TIONS OP APPLETON'S annual CVCLOP.KDIA," ETC., ETC. 



ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY-TWO PORTRAITS FK03I LIFE. 



PUBLISHED BY ZIEGLER k McCURDY, 

PHILADELPHIA, PEXN'A.; SPR[NGFIKLI>. MASS.j CINCINNATI, OIIIOj 
ST. LOUIS, MO. ^ 






Entered according to Act oi Congress, in the year 1872, by 

L. P. BROCKET T, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. 0. 




^ H-o 



^^ 



PREFACE. 



" Nothing," says a recent epigrammatic writer, " suo- 
ceeds like success." We may add, nothing interests the 
public like the history of success. Let a man be poor, 
obscure, and undistinguished by any remarkable or con- 
spicuous deeds, and though he had the wisdom of Solo- 
mon, the meekness of Moses, the patience of Job, or the 
faith of Abraham, yet there would be little or no inter- 
est felt in his history. An humble and outwardly quiet 
life may have its record of heart struggles, its days of 
sunshine and shadow, its nights of wearying anxiety 
and mental disquiet, whicii are full of interest to beings 
of higher intelligence than ours, and form to the psycho- 
logist a curious study; but for the great mass of man- 
kind they possess no charm. 

But let this same man achieve, slowly or suddenly, a 
high position ; let him, by some cunning invention, or by 
some bold and daring enterprise, attain a princely for- 
tune ; or, better still, by the bold avowal of some great 



\\\ 



IV PREFACE. 

and righteous principle, and patient adherence to it 
through years of obloquy and persecution, win from a 
reluctant world admiration for his fearless persistency ; 
let him at a fitting moment enunciate some great truth 
which shall influence a continent, or speak some word 
which shall loosen a nation's bonds ; let him by calm 
cool bravery, sound judgment and unflinching resolution, 
win his way up from a humble position to the command 
of great armies, and leading them wisely, bring a long 
and bloody war to a close ; or in the quiet of his study, 
let him forge those lyrics, whose white heat shall set the 
world aflame, and there will be enough to interest them- 
selves in him. His every movement will be chronicled. ; 
thousands will seek to honor themselves in honoring 
him ; his words will be carefully noted and treasured ; 
and even the most trivial incidents of his childhood and 
youth will be eagerly sought for, and read with the 
greatest avidity. 

And there is nothing surjDrising, nothing wrong in 
this. When a man has achieved greatness, it is natural 
that we should desire to know the steps by which he 
has attained to his present position, for there is in every 
heart, and especially in the hearts of the young, a hope, 
seldom expressed, oft^n hardly acknowledged to them- 
selves, that, knowing the way, they, too, may succeed 



PREFACE. V 

in ascending to that lofty and distant summit, where 
"Fame's proud temple shines afar;" and though but 
few have the patience and the gifts to realize their fond 
expectation, yet they are often led to greater exertion 
than they would have made but for the inspiration of 
such a hope. 

But while thus inciting the young to emulate the 
struggles and toils by which others have gained exalted 
station or distinction, the biographer must be impartial, 
and record, though in a kindly spirit, the errors and 
faults, as well as the good qualities of those of whom 
he writes. If he fails to do this, and indulges in in- 
discriminate eulogy, the lesson he seeks to impart will 
be lost ; for there is no perfection in human life, and a 
just, but not unkind, delineation of the faults and errors 
of others, may lead the young reader to avoid them in 
his own life. 

It is at all times a matter of difficulty, in the case of 
living men, to award the just measure of either praise 
or blame in a biographical sketch ; and never more so, 
than when the subject is one of the candidates for high 
office, in a heated and violent political campaign ; but 
the writer has endeavored, without partisan bitterness 
or prejudice, for or against either of the prominent 
political leaders, to draw their portraits, leaning in every 
case to the side of mercy rather than of severity 



Vl PREFACE. 

How far he has been successful in this respect his 
readers must decide. For the rest, his sources of infor- 
mation have been ample, and as he believes thoroughly 
authentic, and he has endeavored to use them as wisely 
as he could. That the volume may aid in making all 
its readers, and especially the young, wiser, by giving 
them loftier and more earnest aims, is his sincere hope 
and desire. 

L. P. B. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., July, 1872. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



U. S. GRANT. 
W. T. SHERMAN. 
P. H. SHERIDAN. 
GEO. Q. MEADE. 
0. 0. HOWARD. 
D. D. PORTER. 
W. S. HANCOCK. 
BENJ. F. WADE. 
R. C. SCHENCK. 
HENRY WILSON. 
LYMAN TRUMBULL. 
0. P. MORTON. 
SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
S. P. CHASE. 
SIMON CAMERON. 
CARL SCHURZ. 
W. D. KELLEY. 
THOS. A. SCOTT. 
G. S. BOUTWELL. 
JOHN SHERMAN. 
JOHN A. LOGAN. 



CHAS. SUMNER, 
EDWIN D. MORGAN. 
REUBEN E. FENTON. 
HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
W. A. BUCKINGHAM. 
HAMILTON FISH. 
ANDREW G. CUBTIN. 
JAY COOKE. 

CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS. 
WM. H. SEWARD. 
KEVERDY JOHNSON. 
GEO. M. ROBESON. 
CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 
J. A. DIX. 
HORACE GREELEY. 
■WENDELL PHILLIPS. 
B. GRATZ BROWN. 
CYRUS W. FIELD. 
GERRIT SMITH. 
HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
Tii 



CONTENTS. 



PA08 

PREFACE ~- 3 

CONTENTS 9 

ULYSSES SIMPSOI^ GRANT. 

Great leaders spring from the people — Often lead quiet and obscure lives till the emergency arises 
which calls them out — Are not always or often those who are first thrown upon the top 
wave — General Grant's ancestry — His boyhood — His fondness for hoi-ses — Anecdotes — His 
judgment and executive power — Incidents — Fond of mathematics — Don't like tanning — 
Sent to West Point — Graduates twenty-first in his cliuss — Service at Jefferson Barracks — At 
Southern posts — In the Mexican war — Distinguishes himself in the battles of the route to 
Mexico, and is honorably mentioned and brevetted — On garrison duty after the Mexican 
war — In Oregon and on the frontier — First Lieutenant— Captain — Resigns his commission — 
Reasons for so doing — Becomes a farmer — 111 success — Tries other vocations — Enters " Grant 
and Son's " store at Galena — His political views — The outbreak of the war — He resolves to 
offer his services to the Government — Adjutant-General of Illinois — Appointed Colonel of 
twenty-first Illinois volunteers — The march to Quincy — Guarding railroads — Acting Briga- 
dier-General — Commissioned Brigadier-General— Heads off Jeff. Thompson — Mrs. Selvidge's 
pies — Grant's post at Cairo — He seizes Smithland and Paducah — Another chase of Jeff. 
Thompson — The battle of Belmont — Fort Henry captured — The siege of Fort Donelson — 
Overtures for surrender — " I propose to move immediately upon your works " — The surren- 
der — A-scent of the Tennessee — The camps at Shiloh — Carelessness of the troops — A sur- 
prise — The battle of Shiloh — The Union troops driven back toward the river, and sadly cut 
up — Grant's coolness and composure — The second day's fights— The rebels driven back and 
compelled to retreat — The siege of Corinth — Gi-ant in command of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee—Battles of luka, Corinth, and the Hatchie — Grant at Memphis — Movement toward 
Vicksburg — The disaster at Holly Springs, and its consequences — Grant at Young's Point 
and Milliken's Bend — Attempts to reach Vicksburg by way of the Yazoo — Canal projects — 
Running the batteries — The overland march — Crossing the River to Bruinsburg — Tlie march 
northward to Jackson, the Black river, and to the roar of Vicksburg — Assaults, and siege^ 
Communication opened above the city — Surrender of Vicksburg — Visits home — Accident at 
New Orleans — Appointed to the command of the Blilitary Division of the Mississippi — At 
Chattanooga — Battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge — Driving Longstreet from 
Knoxville — President Lincoln's Letter — Grant Lieutenant-General — Preparations for the 
campaign of 18G4 — Consultation with Sherman — The opening battles of the spring of 1864 — 
Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the North Anna, etc. — " I propose to fight it out on this line, if 
it takes all summer " — Battles of Tolopotomy and Cold Harbor — Crossing the James — Peters- 
burg — The mine — Hatcher's Run — The operations in the Shenandoah Valley — Terrible 
pounding — The enemy at last worn out — Cutting their communications — Five Forks — 
Evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg — Lee's surrender — The President's assassination — 
Grant at Raleigh — The nation's gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant — His Southern tour — 
He accompanies Mr. Johnson to the West — Created General, July, 1866 — Secretary of War 
ad interim, August, 1867 — Resto^^8 the office to Secretary Stanton, Januarj', 1868 — Rage of 
the President — His nomination for the Presidency in May, 1868 — Note: The Republican 
platform and General Grant's acceptance — The Presidential campaign — The election — The 

ix 



X CONTENTS. 

Republican majority — He resigns bis commission as General — His inauguration and his new 
Cabinet — The troubles which followed his selection — Changes In the Cabinet — His reasons 
for not selecting prominL-nt political leaders as his Cabinet advisers — His course possibly inju- 
dicious — A review of his administration, and the charges made against it — Some errors com- 
mitted, but wisdom gained from experience — The complaints of nepotism, favoritism, and 
intriguing for power greatly exaggerated, and while having some slight basis of fact, were 
yet untrue in tlie inferences of corrupt motive deduced from them — The successes of his 
administration— Reduction of national debt — Treaty of Wiishington — Peace with the Indian 
tribes — A beginning of civil reform — Financial prosperity — President Grant's pei-sonal 
appearance — His physical and intellectual characteristics — His renomination for the Presi- 
dency at Philadelphia, June 5th and 6th, 1872— The Platform of the National Republican 
Convention, Judge Settle's letter to President Grant, and the President's acceptance of tlie 
nomination 17-68 

WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAI^. 

His birth— Adopted into the family of Hon. Thomas Ewing— Enters West Point^His high rank 
as a cadet — Services in Florida — At Fort Moultrie — Transferred to California — Promoted to a 
captaincy — Marries — Resigns — Is a banker — President of Louisiana State Military Academy — 
His letter of resignation — Intense loyalty — Visits Washington— Incredulity of the Govern- 
ment — Colonel of l.'ith Infantry — In battle of Bull Run — Desperate ligliting — Brigadier- 
General — In command of Department of the Ohio — Excludes the reporters from his head- 
quarters — Indignation of the " gad-flies " of the press — " Two hundred thousand men 
wanted " — Ad interim Thomas pronojinccs him crazy — Sherman asks to be relieved — Is 
shelved at Jefferson Barracks — Halleck assigns liini to a division — The hero of tlie buttle of 
Shiloh — The attiick on Chickasaw Bluff — Superseded by BIcClemand — Restored to command 
by Grant — The Sunflower river expedition — Demonstration on Haines' Bluff — The rapid 
marches and hard figliting in approaching Vicksburg from below — His capture of Walnut 
Hills, and assaults on Vicksburg — Pursuit of Johnston — In» command of the army of the 
Tcnnessp". and en mute to Chattanooga — The demonstration on Fort Buckner — Pursuit of 
Longstrcet and rsisinjg the siege of Knoxville — The Meridian expedition— What it accom- 
plished — Commander of the Grand Military Division of the Mississippi — Number of his 
troops — His communications— The movement toward Atlanta, Dalton, Rcsaca, Kingston, 
Allatoona Pass, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain — Crossing the Chattahoochie — Rousseau's raid— 
The battle before Atlanta — Death of McPherson — Siege of the city — Its capture by strata- 
gem — Thomas sent northward — Sherman marches to the sea — Capture of Fort McAllister 
and Savannah — "A Christmas gift" — Sherman's march through the Carolinas — Columbia 
and Charleston captured — Entrance into North Carolina — Results thus far— Battles of 
Averysboro and Bentonville — Goldsboro occupied — Rest — Sherman goes to City Point — For- 
ward again — Rvleigh — Overtures for surrender by Johnston — Sherman's propositions — Their 
rejection by the Cabinet — Grant sent to Raleigh — Surrender of Johnston — In command of 
the Military Division of the Mississippi — Lieutenant-General, U. S. A., and LL.D. — Suc- 
ceeds General Grant, as General of the U. S. A. in March 18G9, and makes his head- 
quartere at Washington, occasionally visiting the various divisions and departments — His 
visit to Europe, 1871-72 — His personal appearance, manners, and habits — Analysis of his 
character as a military commander — His possible deficiency as a civil commander — His dili- 
gence as a military student — Attachment of his soldiere to him 69-9T 

'admiral dayid d. porter. 

His father a naval hero — Sketch of Commodore David Porter — Birth of the future Vice-Admiral— 
He accompanies his father in chase of the pirates when a child — Enters the navy in 1829 — 
Midshipman — In coast survey — Slow promotion — In Mexican war — On the Crescent City — 
" He would go in" — Promoted to be commander— In blockading squadron— In charge of 
mortar fleet — On the James river — In charge of the Mississippi squadron as Acting Rear- 
Admiral — Captures Fort Henderson — The Yazoo and Sunflower expeditions — Running the 
batteries — Fight at Grand Gulf — Shelling Vicksburg — The Red river expedition — Gathering 
cotton— Jumping the rapids — Colonel Bailey's wing dams— Sharp fighting— Recalled to the 



CONTENTS. XI 

Atlantic Coast — Tlie two attacks on Fort Fisher — Its capture — Capture of Wilmington — Cor- 
respondence with General Butler — Superintendent of the Naval Academy — Relonus — Con- 
tinues in the Superintendency of the Naval Acadomy until the beginning of Grant's admin- 
istration, when he resigned, and for about three months was Secretiiry of the Navy, de 
J'acln — He continues at Washington as Acting Admiral during Admiral Farragut's European 
tour, and after Admiral Farragut's death was temporarily appointed Admiral by the Presi- 
dent — The letter to Secretary Welles, and its treacherous publication — Admiral Porter's unwise 
management in regard to it — His nomination to the Senate as Admiral — He is confirmed — 
His personal appearance — His fine intellectual culture — His extraordinary physical cour- 
age 98-112 

lieutenant-ge:^eiial philip h. sheridan. 

His birth and birth-place — His adventures with the Irish schoolmaster McNanly — His ajipoint- 
nient to West Point — Gets sent down one class for thrashing a fellow cadet — His gradua- 
tion — Ser\-es on the Texas frontier — In California and Oregon — Keeps the Indians in order — 
His readiness for the war — Audits claims— Quartermaster for General Curtis — Sent to buy 
horses — On Halleck's staff — Colonel of cavalry — Commands a cavalry brigade — Made Briga- 
dier-General — Commands the third division in the Army of the Ohio — Fortifies Louisville — 
C#mmands his division at Perryville, and saves the day — His gallant conduct at Stone 
Kiver — He turns the tide of battle — Made Major-General — Sheridan at Cliickamauga — Cut 
off by the enemy, but find? his way back — Sheridan in the ascent of Mission liidge — His gal- 
lant leadership — " How are you ? " — He mounts a captured gun — Transferred by General 
Grant's request to the charge of the cavalry corps in the Army of the Potomac — He reor- 
ganizes it — Fights seventy-six battles in less than a year — Ills report — His raid toward 
lUchmond — Appointed commander of the Dei)artment of the Shenandoah — The battle of 
Opequon creek — Early " sent whirling " — Made Brigadier-General in regular army — The 
battle of Middletown plains — A defeat and a victory — " We are going to get a twist on 
them!" — The reinforcement of the Union army, "one man, Shebipan !" — "The ablest of 
generals " — The great raid to the upper waters of the James — Marching past Richmond — 
Dinwiddle Court-House — Five Forks — Removal of General Warren — Following up the 
enemy — Ordered to Texas — Commander of the Fifth District — Troubles — The riot and mas- 
sacre — Border difficulties — Sheridan's decisive action — President Johnson removes him — 
His visit North, and the ovations he received — His management of Indian affairs — Promoted 
to be Lieutenaxt-Gexeral U. S. A, March 5th, 1869. Assigned to the command of the 
Military Division of the Missouri — Spends several months in Europe during the Franco-Ger- 
man war — His return, and his invaluable service at Chicago after the great fire — Acting 
General-in-chief of the U. S. A. during General Sherman's absence in Europe — His personal 
appearance and personal magnetism 113-142 

MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 

Born in Spain — His family— His education at West Point — His engineering services — In the 
Mexican war— Survey of the northern lakes— In command of one brigade of the Pennsyl- 
vania Resers-e Corps — Army promotions — Battle of Mechanicsville— Wounded in the Seven 
Days— Division commander— Commands a corps at Antietam — At Fredericksburg— Succeeds 
to command of fifth army coqis- Major-General of volunteers — Battle of Chancellorsville — 
The march into Pennsylvania— General Meade succeeds General Hooker— His general order 
on assuming command— Battle of Gettysburg — The pursuit of Lee — Lee's attempt to Bevcr 
his communications— General Sleade's action of Mine Run — He commands the Army of the 
Potomac through the campaign of 1804-5— Made Brigadier and Major-General in regular 
army— In command of Military Division of the Atlantic— Suppression of Fenian invasion of 
Canada — Transferred to the Military Division of the South — His services there — Transferred 
in March, 18Cn, to the command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, which was subse- 
quently enlarged — General Meade's personal, intellectual and military characteristics — His 
modesty— An English writer's description of him 143-151 

MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 

Bom in Pennsylvania— His family— His early education— A cadet at West Point— His rank on 
graduation— Commissioned in the infantry— On the frontier— In the Mexican war— His gal- 



sli contents. 

lAntrj- — Is l>n'vottetJ and mentioutHl in the official reports — His sorvioes acknowledged by the 
rennsyh-auia Lvsislatun' — 8tatiout^l at l*rairie Ju Chien, ami at St. Li.>uis — Marrietl iu l^^O 
to a laily of St. Louis — Attains start' rank of aiptaiu in IsTio^lu ISoO, at St. Augustiuo, luid 
eubsequfutly in Vtah and California, whoro Uo ser\evl till the couiiuducfuionl of the war — 
Visits Wsiihiugton — .\pi»,>inttHl Brigiadior-ileuonU on General Mci'lellan's n><uiiiialion, St'pt. 
23, 1S»>1 — His i>art iu the siege of \"orktown — The l>attle of Williiunsburg — His Iwyonet 
charge — His Jesiwrate fighting at Gaines Mills, and during the St'ven Paj-s — Coiumissioned 
Major-GenenU of volunteers, luid June 27th, hrvvetted Colonel U. S. A. — Conimamls a Divi- 
sion at .Kutietaiu — In the kittle of yredericksburg — Conspicuous for his hravery — Ilis gal- 
lant cvniduct and svn-vess at Chancellorsville — Assigueii to the cv>mutand of the Stxvnd Army 
Corjw — His admirable c\.>mluct at Gettysburg — Severely wounded — His gradu;U revvvery — 
Honors liestoweil on hiin at Xomstown, West Pvdut, New Tiu-k. and St. Louis — Or\lort>d to 
Washington, Pecemlfr. ISiB — Ktiises ,V\000 men for his army cv^r^s — His g-.Ul.iut fighting 
and magnilicent charge iu the Wilderness, and at Sivttsylvania — Made Brigaiiier-General ia 
V. S. A., August lith, 1^04. Further honors — Pisubleti by the luvakiug out afresh of his 
wound — .\iilsiu organiiing the veteran cv>riis — Commamis in West Virginia, the Army of the 
Shenaiidi\di, etc., till July ISth, ISiJo— Transferred to Detwrtment of the Missouri, lS«ks and 
commands an exi>eilition agaiust the Indians in IS^T — Brevetled Major-<5eneral V. S. A., 
March, l!?ivj«, and commissioneti Major-General, July itvth, 1S6«>— Transferrwl by Pn?sident 
Johnson to o-numsuid of Fifth Military District ^Louisiana and Texas^ in August, IStTT — 
Revokes Genenil Sheridan's v>rderss and issues a sixx-ial or\ler — .VW : Qut>stionablene«s of 
Gi>nei-al llaucvvk's action at that time — GenersU tirant revokes his orxlers — He asks to l»e r«>- 
lieved — Is wade cv>mmatHler of the new dei>artment of Washington — Assigneil in March, 
IStS), to cvnumand of Milit.iry Peixirtment of Pakota — l"uv>leasant state of feeling between 
him and President Grant— General Hancock's personal ai^peaiauce — His personal mag- 
netism - - _ _- 152-lfii 

MAJOK-GEXERAL JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

His bitth and v»arentage — Removed to Illinois— .\ cadet at West Pinut— Gradviati^s iu ISvV? seventh 
in his class — Enters the ,-u-tiUery — Two years at Southern torts — Five years at West IViut as 
instnictor in Xatural PhiU^si'phy — rrv>fe«sor in Washington Vniversity, St. Uniis, Mo„ in 
ISeiv—Afler c\>u»mencx>uient of the war. Msyor First Mita^nm iufantrj- — .\ssistaui Ailjutant- 
Geneial to General Lyon — Brigadier-General of volunteers, Nov. 21st, 1S61 — Cv'mmands Mis- 
souri militia, and in June, ISfcJ, the >Ulitary District of Missiniri— Deft>ats the rel>els at Fea 
Ridge — In Nov., lSt!2, arjx>int«M by President Uncoln, Miyor-General of wdunteors, and not 
l>eing ivnfimusl, was n-«n>ivinteil in .\pril, 1S63 — .\ller a mouth's service in the Army of 
the l^imberland ap{x>inte<l to conuuand of Deiwrtment of the Misskum — Ci«ptuaxi Fort Smith 
and IJttle R.K-k. .Vrkanssis— Relievtxl in Jan., ISlU, and Feb. 9th. ISiH, made ivmmsinder of 
the IV>pailmeut and .\rmy of the Ohio iXwenty-thinl .\rmy Cori^V— Fought tlin.>ngh the 
Atlanta i-aniivtigu— *ent l«ck to Nashville in Nov., IStH, with General Thomas, to Kvk after 
HixkI— amtiuued skirmishing fh'n> Not. 14th to Not. S»Hh— Action at Ptilaski ; battle at 
tVdumbia : severt> and harvl fought Ivittle at Franklin, Tennwse : Si-hofield in command in 
all — Siege and l>attle of Nashville — SchotieUrs gallant cv>ndnct— Pursuit i>f H>.kh1— is.hofield 
and his ivrps tran-iferre^l to N^rth 0»rvdina — aipt\ir»> of Wilmington, etc. — Command of 
DeiiHrtment of North Cs«roHiu-i — Brigadier<ieneral in regular army, Nov. Anh, lSt4 — Bre- 
veltkHi Mivjor-tteneral V. S. .\.. Manh l;>th. IStvi — t\imn>i^oned M.\jor-General in l<ttT— On 
siieci.xl duty in Eim>pe, ft\>m June ISftS, to .\ngust. IStk^— Ok.>inmander Pejiartment of the 
Potomac. lS«>t">-t!7. and of >^i-st Military District fn^m March, IS«?T. ^^ .\pril. ISt>S— ^?e^-r>^ 
tary of Wt«r April £V1, ISti*. to Mareh llth.lStSsi — Commander of Military Det^artment iif the 
Missonri, 186;»-T0, and on the iltNtth of General Thom,'»s, transferred to the cvmimand of the 
BliUtary Division of the Pacific ~ -...I^-ICT 

BRIGADTEE-GEXERAL OLIVER OTIS HOTTARD. 

His birth and olucation — .V gradu.ite of Bv^wxloin c\dleg\' — Fnters West Point — Graduates fourth 
in his class — His service N>fore the war — .Assistant prv^fessa'r at Wk>st Point— -«.\doneI of 
Tvdunteers from Maine — Leads a brigade at Bull Kun— Brigadier-General of Tulunteew. Sep- 



CONTENTS. XIU 

tcintH-r, IStU — LiKisos his arm at Fiiir thiks — At soconil Kittle of Cull Run — At Anfiotani 
and Fivilorii'k>l>urg — M«jor-liiMii>ral of voluutoors, and Ciunmanilcr of the I'lowiith oori>s — 
Tlio Uittlo of I'hanoelloi'svillo — Panic in oU-vonth corns — Uottysburg — Gallant behavior of 
Genenil Howarxl — Uowiuil at rhattaniHtgsi — The ossnnlt on Fort IJuckner — The niart-h to 
Athuita — Succeeds to the command of the Army of the Tennessee — Ili.s bravery — Leads tho 
right wing of SheniKin's army in the march to the sea, and thnmgh the Oarolinas — Anec- 
dote of Shernuin and Howard, wle — Slade Brig-adior and brevet Majiu-General in the n>gul;vr 
Army — Ainxniited Oouiniissioner of the Froednuin's Buivau — Pix^sident .Iolin>oirs opixisition 
to this bureau — Ho desires to remove General Howarvl fivm the commissionoi-shii), but is 
lireventeii by the Tenure of Ollice law — The difficulties in the administnitiou of the affaii-s of 
the bnrv-au caused by the Tresident's opposition — His management of the Freedman's Bureau 
— F.uinds the lL>w:u\i l"iiivei-sity — Is apiK>inted to the [Vicification of the predatory tribes of 
the Svuahwest — Literary honoi-s coufcrrini on Geuerai Howard 168-178 

SALMOX PORTLAND CHASE. 

Birth and ancestry — His father's cliaracter and career — >Ir. Chase's early education — Bishop 
Chase's invitation — His stay at Cleveland — Tho ferry Uiy — His life at Worthing— Keraovea 
with his uncle to Cincinnati — The bishop goes to England, and his nephew returns to Now 
Hamiishire — Tenches, and enters Partmouth college — His standing there — The revocation of 
the fiiculty's sentence on his fellow student — .\t Washington — Teaching — Studies law under 
Williiuu Wirt — Commences practice in Cincinnati — Partnership — Defends J. G. Birney — 
Other anti-slavery cases — " \ promising young man who has just ruined himself" — Defends 
Biniey agjiin, and Van Zandt — " Once free, always free " — Aids ii»organizing a Liberty jKirty — 
The tliirxl clause of the Constitution of the I'nited States— No mental reservations — Address 
to Daniel O'Connell — The S. and W. Liberty Convention— The Van Zandt and Dieskell vs. 
r;iri,<h c;vses — Mr. Cli;ise in the Senate — His ability there— Withdraws fiMm the Democratic 
jwrty in 1S,V2 — Elected and re-elected Governor of Ohio — His financial ability in that jiosi- 
tion — Again in the Senate^In the Peace CiMiference — ApiKiinted Secretary of the Treasury 
by Mr. Lincoln — His incessjxnt labi>rs — The skill and success of his financial measures — 
His early lo.-uis — The tive-twenties — The National kinking Act — The seven-thirties and ten- 
forties — Brief expi.>sition of his jv>licy — His resignation — His apix>iiitment as Chief Justice — 
Tour at the South — Characteristii-s of Chief Justice Cliase's mind — He presides over the im- 
IHMchment trial — His persiinal appearance — A {Hissible candidate for the Presidency in lSf>S 
auJ iu ISTi — His letter on the subject — His character as a statesman 179-200 

WILLIAM HEXRY SEWARD. 

Birth and education — Sttidios law with John Anthon and others— Kemoves to Anbum— Mar- 
riage — Partnership — Presides over Adams' Young Men's Convention — An anti-mason — 
Elected to the State Senate — His career then- — Goes to F.un>|H> — Elected and re-elected 
Governor — Measures of his administration — Controversy with Cmveniors of Georgia and Vir- 
ginia — Resumes the practice of law — The Freeman case — The Van Zandt case — The Michi- 
gan Conspiracy cases— Politii-al and literary addresses— Electeil U. S. Senator — " The higher 
law "—He is abused by pr^>-slavery mi-n — The subjects he discussed — His literary lal>ors — 
Argument in the McCormick Reajier case — Re-election to the Senate — His great lalnirs in 
the Senate — " The Irrepressible Conflict" — The Presidential nomination in isr.0 — Mr. Seward 
a csindidate — He Oinvasses for ^Ir. Lincoln — Entertains the Prince of Wales — Is ap|Hnnted 
Secn'tary of St,ite — The imivirtant questions he ha<l to handh> — Mason and SlidiU — Some 
dissatisfaction felt with some of his measures — Tenders his resignation to Mr. Lincoln — It is 
not accepted — "Sixty or ninety days" — The accident to Mr. Seward — .\ttempt to assassinate 
him — his rean-ery — Regrets — Mr. SewanVs recent cciurse — His pnirhaSes of territory — His 
liws of reputation by his support of Mr. Johnson's schemes — rndertaki-s a jouniey niund 
the world — Lessons from his public life — His personal appearance 201-216 

SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

His hirth and early lif.-" — Removal to the West — Clerk in a country store — Depnty county audi- 
tor — Studies law — The debating society and mock legislature — Owns and edits the St. 



Xiv CONTENTS. 

Joseph Valley Register — Not a printer by trade — Ability with which the paper was con- 
ducted — Mr. Wllkeson's account of Mr. Colfax at this time — Mr. Colfa.x's remarks — A dele- 
gate to, and secretary of the Whig National Convention in 1S48 — Member of the Indiana 
Constitutional Convention — Opposes the Black laws — A candidate for Congress in 1851, but 
defeated — Delegate and Secretary of the National Whig Convention in 185'2 — Elected to Con- 
gress in 1854 — His maiden speech — Half a million copies circulated — Canvasses for Colonel 
Fremont as President — Successive re-elections to Congress — Speaker of the House for three 
successive sessions — His remarkable ability as a presiding officer — His interest in the Pacific 
railroad — Overland journey to California — " Across the continent " — His canvass for Mr. 
Lincoln — Cordial and intimate relations with him — Personal Appearance — Manner as a 
speaker — P;issage from one of his speeches — Religious character — Elected Vice-President in 
18G8— His ability as President of the Senate 217-229 

HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 

" We raise men " — Mr. Hamlin's family — His birth and ediic;ition — An editor — Studies law — Ad- 
mitted to the bar — Removes to Hampden, Maine — In the Legislature — In Congress — His 
defence of New England — Re-election— His laboi-s— Elected to the Senate — His opposition to 
slavery — Loaves the Democratic party and becomes a Republican — Elected Governor by an 
immense majority — Re-elected to tlie Senate — Replies to Senator Hammond's " Mudsill" 
speech — Nominated and elected Vice-President — The confidence he inspired — His judicious 
course — The folly which prevented his re-nomination — Appointed Collector of Boston — His 
resignation and its cause — His letter to Mr. Johnson — Subsequent career — Elected for the 
fourth time to the United States Senate — Personal appearance — Character 230-239 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 

Birth and early life — Goes to Ohio on foot — Cutting wood — School teaching — Driving cattle — 
Work on the Erie canal — Teaching again — Studios law — His first case — His unremitting 
study — His success — Prosecuting attorney for Aslit;ibula — Elected to the State Senate — His 
work there — His anti-slavery views give offence — Returns to the practice of his profession — 
Canvasses Oliio for General Harrison — His marriage — Again elected to the State Senate — 
Procures the incori)oi-ation of Oberlin College — Makes an able report against the refusal of 
the right of petition by Congress — Defends J. Q. Adams — Declines renomination to the 
Senate — Resumes practice — Elected in 1847 President Judge of third Judicial District of 
Ohio — His ability as a judge — Chosen U. S. Senator in 1851 — Takes the Stump for General 
Scott — Aliandoiis the Whig party in 1854, and avows himself a " Black Republican " — His 
speech — Incidents of the Kansas-Nebraska debate — The Southern fire-eater — "A foul- 
mouthed old blackguard " — "Gag" Atherton and Mr. Wade — Some men bom slaves—" The 
dwai-fish medium " — " Selling his old mammy " — Senator Douglas's " Code of Morals " — Lane 
of Kansas — " Well, what are yon going to do about it?" — Wade not to bo crushed — "Good- 
by. Senator " — " The Liberator, one of our best family papers "^Toombs's tribute to Senator 
Wade's honesty and integrity — His avowal of his radicalism — The assault on Senator 
Sumner — Senator Wade's fearlessness— His action duinng the war — Re-elected to the 
Senate — President of the Senate, and Vice-President of the United States— Appointed chair- 
man of a commission to visit Santo Domingo — His personal appearance — His keen eye — An 
excellent presiding officer — The measures he has initiated and advocated — His only disagree- 
ment with President Lincoln 240-2G2 

HAMILTON FISH. 

Birth and education — Embraces the profession of the law — Success as a lawyer — Early interest 
in politics — Becomes a member of the State Assembly of New York — Fills various public 
offices — Elected Governor of the State — Conduct as Governor — Becomes a niember of the 
United States Senate — Travels in Europe — Appointed on a commission to relieve the Union 
prisoners in the Southern prisons — Revisits Europe — Nominated Secrefciry of State by Presi- 
dent Grant — His administration of the duties belonging to this office — His conduct regarding 
the Alabama Claims, and especially indirect damages — Character aa a diplomatist and states- 
man 263-268 



CONTENTS. XV 

GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 

Birth, lineage, and education— In a country store— The old library— Self-culture— His earnestness 
as a student— He studies law— A public lecturer— A political speaker— A member of the 
Massachusetts Legislature for seven years out of nine — Other offices held by Mr. Boutwell— 
A candidate for Congress— Nominated for Governor, and elected in 1851 and 1852- In the 
Constitutional Convention of 185a— For ten years a member of the board of education, and 
for five years its secretary— Literary and scientific honors — His anti-slavery views — A con- 
sistent advocate of the rights of man — Organizes the new Department of Internal Revenue, 
and acts as commissioner in 18G1-62— Member of Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth 
Congresses — A manager in the impeachment— Nominated by President Grant as Secretary of 
the Treasury in 1869 — His financial management- His habits of mind — Effectiveness as a 
speaker 2G9-275 

GEORGE MAXWELL ROBESON. 

Birth and education— Early eminence as a lawyer — Appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas of Cam- 
den county, in 1855 — Becomes Attorney-General of New Jersey — Member of the Sanitary Com- 
mission — Appointed Brigadier-General of volunteers — Nominated as Secretary of the Navy 
in 1869 — His administration of the department — Temper and disposition 276-278 

GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. 

Birth and education — Admitted to the bar in 1844 — Moves to the " Great West," and settles in 
Iowa — Elected Judge of the First Judicial District of that State — Appointed bj- President 
Pierce, in 1853, Chief Justice of the Territory of Oregon — Member of the United States 
Senate in 1865— Serves on many important committees in Congress — His great legal attain- 
ments—Appointed Attorney-General of the United States in 1872 — Qualifications for the 
office 279-280 

JACOB DOLSON COX. 

General character of Mr. Cox — His birth, descent and education — Becomes a lawyer — Attain- 
ments in literature, history, philosophy and military and political science — .Appointed Briga- 
dier-General of volunteers in ISGl — His campaign in Western Virginia under McClellan and 
Eosecrans — Commands tlie District of Ohio under General Burnside — The Atlanta campaign 
— In the battles of Franklin and Nashville — .Appointed Major-Genenil in 1804 — His exploits 
on the .\tlantie coa-st — Elected Governor of Ohio, and resigns his milifciry oflice — Returns to 
his practice of the law— Nominated by President Grant as Secretory of the Interior — Resigns 
his office in 1870 — A member of the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati in 
1872 281-286 

SIMON CAMERON. 

Birth and early life — Becomes editor of the remisylrania Iiildlipenrrrfd Doylestown, Pa. — Presi- 
dent of the Midilletown Bank — Elected United States Senator for Pennsylvania — His political 
career — Nominated Uy President Linculn in 1861 as Secretary of War — Difficulties connected 
with the office — Resigns from ill-health in 1S62 — In 1871 appointed chairman of the Com- 
mitt«e on Foreign Affairs — His great experience and influence in political matters — Business 
successes 287-290 

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 

His lineage — Birth — Early residence abroad — Fights the English boys for the honor of America — 
Enters Harvard College — Graduates with high honors -Studies law with Daniel Webster — 
His marriage — Literary labors — In the Stxte Senate — Contributes to the reviews, etc. — Opposes 
the admission of Texas as a slave State — Edits the Bn^tim Wln'g — Nominatnd by the Free- 
Soilers for Vice-Presidency — His " Life and Works of .Tohn Adams" — Elected to Oongrfss in 
1858, 1800, and 1861 — His course there — Appointed Jlinister to England by Mr. Lincoln — His 



XVl CONTENTS. 

extraordinary ability as a diplonialist — Complicated state of affairs in England — His great 
eenicos to his cxiuntrj- — Keturus to America, and retires into private life — Appiniited in ISTl 
the American Commissioner to Geneva, in connection with the Treaty of Washington — Two 
Letters by Mr. Adauis on political subjects — Personal appearance _ .....291-301 

REVERDY JOHNSOX. 

Birth and lineage — He studies law — Keports the decisions of the Court of Appeals — Appointed 
Deputy Attomey-Oener.U of MaryUind — Removes to Baltimore — Civil app^lintments — Elected 
State Senator — Serves for four years — Resigns to devote himself to hi< extensive practice — 
Senator in Congress lS4o— la — A,ttomey4ieneral United States. lS4J>-50 — Retires from office — 
His reputation as a jurist — Delegate to Peace Conferi>nce, 1S61 — C S. Senatt>r, 1S63-69 — His 
course during the rebellion — His devotion to the Constitution — On the committee on recon- 
struction — His anniments in the Senate — Ap}K>inted by President Johnson, in ISGS, minister 
to tlie Court of St. James — Negotiates a treaty with the British Government regarding the 
Alabama Claims, etc., which was afterwarvls rejectetl by the Senate — Returns to the United 
States in 18C9, and devotes himself to his profession — His continued vigor of mind and 
body - 302-304 

CALEB CUSIIIXG. 

Birth, parentage, and education — Admitted to the bar in 1S25 — Elected a Representative to the 
State Legislature of JIassachusetts — His literary productions — Makes a tour in Europe — Pub- 
lic addresses — Elected to Congress as Representative of his State — His literary essa>-s and ora- 
tions — Ability as a public orator — Parli;unent.iry accomplishments — Appointed United States 
Commissioner to Cliina — Negotiates a tre:ity there — Returns home, and in 1S46 is ag;un chosen 
to represent Xewbur>TXirt in the State Legislature — Colonel of the JLissachusetts regiment — 
BrigatUer-General of volunteers in 1S4T — flavor of Newburyport — His great interest in lite- 
rary and educational matters — Literary honors — N'ominated by President Pierce, United States 
Attorney-GenenU — Confidential agent of the E.xocutive at the Siitbreak of the late Mar — 
In 1SG6, app«.unted one of the jurists to codify the laws of the United States — One of the 
counsel l>efore the Commissioners at Geneva — His general character 305-311 

JOnX ADAMS DIX. 

Birth and lineage — Early edui-ation — Enters St. Mary's College, Baltimore — His proficiency in 
classics and matliematics — Offered and accepts an Ensign's n\nk in the army — His promo- 
tions — His father's death — Captain in the Third. Artillery — Visits CuUi — His marriage — Ad- 
mission to the kir — In politiciU life — Adjutant-General of Xew York — S<>cretarj- of State — 
In the Legislature — Tour of Euroi>e — U. S. Senator — Xominoe of Free-S<>ilers for Governor — 
Assistant U. S. Tre.isurcrat Xew York — Postmaster of Xew York City, ISoO to ISCl — Secre- 
tary of the Treiisurj-, January to March, ISOl — " If any man attempts to haul down the 
Ameriam flag, sln;>ot him on the six>t ! " — Presides over Union me<.>ting in Union P;irk — .Ap- 
pointed M;y".'r-General in regular army, June 16th. ISCl — In command of District of Marj-- 
land — Transferred to Eastern Virginia — Commands Department of the E.ist — Trial and exe- 
cution of Be;Ul and Kenninly — Presides at the Philadelphia Convention — Xominateil by 
President Johnson, Naval Officer of the Port of New Y'ork, and the ssime day U. S. Minister 
to France — Chooses the latter — Is confirmed, and enters upon his duties in J.uiuarv-, 1S67 — 
Returns home in 1S69, and retires into pri^"ate life — His published works — His personal 
appearance..... „.312-31S 

JOIIX LOTIIROP MOTLEY. 

Designation of an author, sbitesman, or diplomatist to his life work sometimes most unac- 
countably delayed — Mr. Motley's birth and parentage — Education — Visits Europe — Re- 
turns to .Vmerica, and studies law — Writes a novel — Sent to Russia in lS4tl as Secretary of 
Legation — .\fler his rettim writes several rt>view articles — In ISol gix-s to Eurojv, and sjx'nds 
five years in diligent study in Berlin, Dresden and the Hague— Learus the Dutch languagv' — 



CONTENTS. XVU 

His " Rise of the Piitoh Ri-public " — Greut success of tliis work — Returns to tU? rnitod States 
in 1S5S — " History of tlie United N'etlierliuuis " — Literary honors — " Causes of the American 
Ci>il War" — Apiniinted by President Joimson, in lb06, Jlinister Pleniiiotentiary to Austria — 
Recalled in ISO" — In IS09 nominated by President Gnint, Minister Plenipotentiary to the 
Court of St. James — His diplomatic ability — Recalled in 1870, and remains in Europe pui-su- 
iug his historical studies — Character as a historian 319-323 

GEORGE BANCROFT. 

Ncft necessary that a gimd historian should devote himself to his work alone — Many instances to 
the contrary — Mr. B;mcn.>ft's birth and parent;ige — E;irly education — Entei's Harvaril Col- 
lege in lSi;i — Goes to Germany, and spends two years in cU>se study at Gottingen — Makes a 
tour of Europe in ISJl, and returns to America in 1S22 — Greek tutor in Harvard College — 
Vith Dr. Cogswell establishes the Round Hill School at Northampton — His great work, '' The 
History of the United States " — Av>i)ointed, in 1S3S, Collector of the Port of Boston, which situ- 
ation he resigned in 1S41 — Appointed by President Polk, Secretary of the Jsavy — In 1S4G, 
sent as Minister Plenivxitentiary to Great Britain — His diplon\atic abilities — Returns to the 
United States in 1S49, and in l!>o2 publishes the fourth and fifth volumes of his history — Other 
Tolumes issued in lSo4, '58, '63, and '66 — His jwlitical views — Minister to Prussia in 1S67 — 
Negotiates a treaty with the North German Confederation — Literary honois — Varied character 
of luslife 3-2-1-330 

ELiiiu BEXJA:^^IX 'washburne. x 

Birth and early apprenticeship — Studies law at llar\ard University — Elected to Congress in 1S53, 
and to succeeding Congresses till 1871 — " Father of the House " — Chairman of Committee ou 
Commerce, and of various other im)xirtant committees — Grant and Washburne's first inti- 
macy, and his suliseijuent vindication of General Grant — .\bility as a speaker — In 18G9 ap- 
pointed by President Grant, Secretary of State, which he shortly resigned, and accepted tho 
position of Minister to France — Remains in Paris during the siege of 1S70-1 — His judicious 
and able management of aflaii-s on the occasion — Great diplomatic ability 331-334 

ROBERT CUMMIXG SCHEXCK. 

Diplomacy, what is it, and who qualified for the work? — United States views on the subject — 
Her representatives equal to those of any other State or Court — Qualifications of Mr. Schenck 
as U. S. Representative at the Court of St. James — His birth and ancestry — Educ;>tion — Ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1828 — Representative in the State Legislature of Ohio, for Dayton, in 
1841 — Electeil to Congress in 184;i, and re-electi^d in 184o, '47, and '49 — Api>ointed by Presi- 
dent Fillmore, Minister to Brazil, in 1S.)1 — His great abilities as Member of Congress, and as 
Foreign Minister — Ketunis to Ohio in 18.V1, and practises his profession — Suppi>rts Mr. Lin- 
coln in 1860, :is a csindidate for the Presidency — Appointed Brigadier-General of volunteers — 
His conduct at Bull Run — Sul>sequent career — Joins the army of Virginia — Severely 
■wounded— Commands the Middle Military Dep;\rtment— The " woman difficulty "in Balti- 
more, and how overcome — Resigns his omimission in 186:5, and takes his seat in Congress — 
Made House Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs— ReM?lected to the Thirty -eighth, 
Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses, and liecime leader of the House — His 
general character— .\pixiintcil by President Grant, .\mKissador to Great Britain in 1871 — 
His diplomatic ability there, esi>ecially regjirding the Alal«nia Claims — Literary accomplish- 
ments—Personal appearance, and intensify of his feelings 335-341 

ANDREW GREGG CURTIX. 

Birth and edacation — Ancestry — Studies law — Admitted to the bar — Takes an interest in poli- 
tics — Canvasses for General Harristm, for Henry Clay, for Genpral Taylor, and General 
Scvtt — On the electoral ticket in l!*4S and ls.''2 — Peclint-s nomination for Governor — State 
SecretHry — Lal>ors :n behalf of education — Devotes himself to the practice of law — .K le.iding 
railroad man — Nominated and elected Governor in isr.0 — His incessant laUirs in raising 
troops, organizing a reser^-e corj^, and prot.>cting Penn«yl\-ania during the war — Invj\sions 
of Pennsylvania — Re-elected in 1863 — Actively engaged in business since hLs retirement from 



XVni CONTENTS. 

office— His iwlitical serrices— Pressed by Iiis friends for Vice-Presidency, but withdraws his 
name— In ISO'J, appointed United StiUes Minister to the Kussian Court— Tlie C'atacazy ditti- 
culty amicably settled by the able management of Mr. Curtin ^42-343 

DAVID DAVIS. 

Insight of President Lincoln in selecting men for high official jiositions — Ability of the members 

of tlie Supreme Court of the United States — Birth and lineage of Mr. Davis — Education 

Admitted to the bar in 1835 — Early intimacy between Davis and Lincoln — Davis is appointed 
Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, in Illinois, in 1S48 — Appointed by President Lincoln 
as member of the Supreme Court of the United States — His ability on the bench His opin- 
ion regarding martial law — Garland vs. Cuniming!: — Bretman vs. lilioda — The Vezif Bank 
case — Appointed administrator of the estate of President Lincoln — His shrewd foresight re- 
garding the purchiUie of land in and around Chicago 346-351 

CHARLES SUMNER. 

Birth — Ancestry — Education — Eminence as a scholar — Studies law — His great attainments in 
the literature of the law — Edits the "American Jurist " — Reporter to the Circuit Court — 
Sumner's Reports — Lecturer in the law school, and editor of law treatises — Visits Europe — 
His cordial reception there — Incidents — Return to America — Devotes himself to law studies, 
and to lecturing on law^Oration on " The Tnie Grandeur of Nations " — Offered a place as 
Judge Storj's successor in the Law School — Determines to enter political life as an Aboli- 
tionist — His public addresses on slavery — Associates himself with the Free-Soil party — Elected 
United States Senator in 1851 — His avowed position — His great speeches on slavery — The 
Kansas-Nebraska bill — " The worst and best bill at the same time " — Anti-slaverj' speeches 
out of Congress — His eloquence — His speech on " The crime against Kansas " — The murder- 
ous assault of Brooks and his a-ssociates upon Mr. Sumner — The effect upon the nation — 
The distressing result of the injuries inflicted upon Mr. Sumner — His recovery, and return 
to his pbice in the Senate — His oration on " The Barbarism of Slavery" — His opposition to 
all compromise — In 18G1 made Chairnutn of the Committee on Foreign Relations — In 1871 
removed from this to be Chairman on Privileges and Elections — Reviews President Grant's 
Administration — Mr. Sumner's general character — Personal appearance, culture, and com- 
prehensiveness of his views as a statesman 352-366 

HENRY WILSON. 

Birth — Early struggles with poverty — His thirst for know ledge — His reply to Senator Ham- 
mond — He enters a shoe shop to learn the ti-ade — Attempts to obtain a collegiate education — 
He is foiled by fraud — In the academy — Visit to Washington — Discussion — Returns to Natick 
and shoemaking — Entere political life— Elected to the Legislature — State Senator — Petitions 
against admission of Texas as a slave State — Speech in opposition to farther extension and 
longer existence of slavery in America — Becomes a Free-Soiler in 1848— Edits the Bnston 
Ki'pubU-an — Again in the Legislature — State Senator — Originates the coalition — Candidate 
for Congress, and for Governor— Elected United States Senator in 1855, as successor to Edward 
Everett— Horror of the old line AVhigs— Mr. Wilson's qualifications for the position— He is 
twice re-elected— His hostility to slavery— His defiance of the Southern leaders— The attack 
on Mr. Sumner "brutal, murderous, and cowardly "—Brooks's challenge— Wilson's reply- 
Brooks silenced— Wilson's courage— Chairman of Military Affairs— His incessant labors in 
that committee and in the Senate— Incidents of the early days of the war— General Scott's 
appreciation of his services— His military service— Raises two regiments— Volunteer aid on 
General MrClellan's staff— The General's regret at his resignation— :Military measures origi- 
nated by him— Mr. Cameron's opinion— His intercourse with Secretary Stanton— Mr. Wil- 
son's constant exertions in behalf of the armv— Other measures advocated by him— Anti- 
slavery legislation— The Freedmen's Bureau Bill— His zeal for the oppressed— His character 
—A candidate for the Vice-Presidency in ISfiS— Again elected to the Senate in 1871— Nomi- 
nated to the Vien.Prosidency at the National Republican Convention held at Philadelphia, 
June 5th and Gth, 1872 307-386 



CONTENTS. XIX 

LYMAN TRUMBULL. 

Birth and parentage — His education — Removal to Georgia — Admission to the bar — Removal to 
Illinois and settlement in Chicago — Election to the State Legislature — Becomes Secretary of 
St;ite^Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois — Representative in Congress — Election to 
the U. S. Senate — Twice re-elected — His opposition to secession — Advocacy of conciliation — 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee — He moves an amendment to the Confiscation Bill — 
Advocates and defends the Emancipation Proclamation — Sustains the act susjjending the 
habeas corpus — Defends the first Frcedman's Bureau Bill, attaching an amendment provid- 
ing for permanent confiscation of rebel property — Aided in drawing up the second and third 
Freedmen's Bureau Bills — Presented the Civil Bights Bill — His course in regard to the im- 
peachment of President Johnson — Supports General Grant's election in 1868 — Character and 
judicial attainments 387-391 

JOHN SHEEMAN. 

His ancestry — The family large — John sent to Mount Vernon, Ohio, to school — At fourteen be- 
gins to earn his own way — Studies civil engineering with Colonel Curtis — Curtis removed 
from office, and Sherman discharged — Wants to go to college, but cannot accomplish it — 
Studies law and literature, and works as a law clerk, all at the same time — Admitted to the 
bar — In partnership with his brother Charles — In political life — Delegate to national con- 
ventions — Presidential elector — Elected to Congress — His services there — Re-elected three 
times — Chosen United States Senator, in Mr. Chase's place, in 18G1, and re-elected in 1807^ 
His labore on the Finance Committee — His bill to fund the public indebtedness — His support 
of home industry — Action on reconstruction — His new funding bill in the Fortieth Congress — 
Its provisions — His defence of it — Subsequent modification of his views — His material assis- 
tance in funding at lower rates of interest the five-twenty bonds — Personal appearance — 
Eflectiveness as a speaker 392-102 

CARL SCHURZ. 

Bom in Germany — Student of the University of Bonn — Through political complications escapes 
to the Palatinate — Assists in the defence of Radstadt — Goes to Switzerland in 1849 — In 1850 
returns to Germany and releases his friend Kinkel from prison — Escape of the fugitives to 
Leith — Paris correspondent 6f some German newspapers — Arrives in London in 1851, mar- 
ries there, and goes to America — Devotes his attention for three years in Philadelphia 
to political, historical and legal studies — Practises the law at Madison, Wisconsin — His first 
speech in English — Great abilities as a politician and an orator — Lectures and speeches — In 
18U0 delegate to the Republican National Convention — Great services to the Republican 
cause — Appointed Minister to Spain by President Lincoln — Resigns the situation at the out- 
break of the civil war, to take part in the military service of his adopted country — Appuiated 
Brigadier-General of volunteera in 1862 — Major-General in 1803 — Distinguishes himself at 
the second Bull Run battle — His conduct at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Cliattanooga — 
Resigns, and returns to Detroit, Michigan — Appointed by President Johnson commissioner 
to report on the Freedmen's Bureau — In 1865-66 corresjioadeat of tire iVew i'/rk Tribune — 
In 1866 establishes the Detroit Post, and afterwards at St. Louis the Westliche I'nsI — Delegate 
to the Republican Convention of May, 1868, at Cliicago — United States Senator in 1869 — 
Powerful in debate — Instigates the investigation respecting tlie sale of arms to France — Con- 
tinued interest in Fatherland — Personal appearance. 403-408 



Jy MORTON. ^6/ 



OLIVER PERCY MORTON. 

Birth and early life — Enters Miami University — Studies law — Marries — Acquires distinction in 
the legal profession — Nominated for Governor in 1856, but defeated — His energy and tact in 
the thorough organization of the Republican party — Elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1860, 
for Indiana — Becomes Governor — Condition of affairs in Indiana at this time — Corrup- 
tion and fraud — Secessionism — He commits the State to loyalty — His e.xertions to send troops 
into the field — Sends State agents to care for Indiana soldiers — The condition of Kentucky — 
Ascertains the plans of the rebels there— 8i»nds aid to the Union men at Louisville and else- 
wh''re — The Kentucky Unionists adopt him as their Governor — Governor Morton's fidelity 
to the absent troops — Malicious charges of his enemies — He is triumphantly vindicated — In- 



XX CONTENTS. 

flupncc with the Govomment — The "Order of American Knights" — Their hatred of Gover- 
nor Morton— The "butternut ticket" — The copperheud Legislature— Tlieir insults to the 
Governor — They refuse to pixss the appropriation bills — Their intention to embiirrass Gover- 
nor Jtorton— His course— The bureau of finance— Re-nonunated for Govornor— His over- 
whelming labore at this time — Re-election by a sweeping raajority-^Complete overthrow of 
the " Sons of Liberty " organization — Zeal for the soldiers — Welcomes them home — Physical 
exhaustion— Paralysis— He sails for Kurope— His health still feeble — Is elected to the Senate 
Services there — Speech on reconstruction — Earnest friend and zealous defender of Presi- 
dent Grant^Lofty patriotism and great integrity of character 409-422 

REUBEN E. FENTON. 

Birth and lineage — Early education— He reads law— Engages in mercantile business, and after a 
time in the lumber trade — Is successful — Chosen supervisor — Elected Representative in 
Congress in lS."i2, and again in '50, "58, '00, and '02— Labors in Congress — Opposition to slavery 
—An active supjiorter of the Government during the war — Elected Governor of New 
York in 1S04 — Able administration — His opposition to coiTuption — Sympathy with the 
Boliliers — His vetoes — Address to President Johnson, 1S66 — The political situation in the 
autumn of 186G — Governor Fenton re-nominated and re-elected by a larger mnjority than at 
first — Continuation of his policy — The rebel dead at Antietani — The Governor's message of 
1868— His fidelity to the people— Elected U. S. Senator iu 18G9 — Politiail views 423-134 

WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKIXGHAM. 

His lineage — His birth and early training — His education — Clerk in New York city, and after- 
warti in Norwich— In business for himself— Treasurer of Hayward Rubber Company— One 
of the foundei-s of the Norwich Free Academy — JIayor of Norwich— His benevolence-^ 
Elected Governor of Connecticut, and seven times re-elected — His prompt and noble action 
at the commencement of the war — Equips the troops on his own responsibility — Sends his 
Adjutant-General to W;ishington to cheer the President — Official letters to the President — 
Congratulation to the President on the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation— The majori- 
ties by which he was re-elected — Close of his gubernatorial career— In ISCO returns to Nor- 
wich, and engages in mercantile affairs — Elected United States Senator in 18(59— His con- 
duct as a Senator 435-441 

WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW. 

His birth and ancestry— Early struggles — Learns a trade — Goes to school— Enters the Blethodist 
ministry — Political experiences in South Carolina — Controversy on slavery — His prediction — 
His account of his political creed — Establishes the Knoxi-ille Wing in 1837 — Its character — 
■ " The Fighting Pai'son " — Discussion with Kev. J. R. Graves — Debate with Rev. Abram 
Payne — Brownlow for the Union unconditiomiUy — He is persecuted by the secessionists — His 
paper stopped — His imprisonment for four months — Sent into the Union lines — Makes a tour 
of the Northern States — "Brownlow's Book " — Residence in Ohio — Returns to Nashville and 
Knoxville— He re-establishes his paper under the title of The Knnxvilk Wliiij and BeM 
Ventilator — Elected Governor of Tennessee in 1865, and re-elected in 1867— Elected U. S. 
Senator for six years, from March, 1869— His account of himself— Intensity of expi-ession, 
and force of will 442-449 

JAMES HARLAN. 

Birth and early educational advantages— Educated at Ashbury University — Professor of lan- 
guages in Iowa City College — State Superintendent of Public Instruction— Studies- law and 
practises it for five yeara — President of Wesleyan University, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa— Elected 
U. S. Senator — Resigns the presidency of the university, but accepts the professorship of 
political economy, etc. — His course in the Sei\ate — His severe rebuke of the Democracy — 
Vote to unseat him on account of irreguladty in his election — Heturns to Iowa, and is imme- 
diately re-elected, and returns to his seat — Jlember of the Peace Congress of 1801 — An inti- 
mate friend and adviser of President Lincoln — Review of his Senatorial action— Extract from 
one of his speeches — Member of Union Congressional Committee in 1864 — .\ppointed Secre- 
tary of the Interior by President Lincoln — Cannot sympathize with " BIy Policy " — Ke- 
gigng_Is returned to the Senate in 1SC7— Acts on various important committees there 450-460 



CONTENTS. XXI 

HON. KOSCOE CONKLING. 

Circumstances of Mr. Ck>nkling's first election to Congress — His birth and lineage — His educa- 
tion — He studies law — Appointed District Attorney for Oneida county — Mayor of Utica — 
Klectod to Congress— Thrice re-elected — He detects and convicts some parties of frauds against 
the Government — The " ring " determine to crusli him — The exciting Congressional canvass 
of 18C6 — Mr. Conkling elected to the U. S. Senate in January, 18G7 — His intense radicalism — 
The case of Judge Patterson of Tennessee — Mr. Conkling's speech — His personal appearance 
and character 461^65 

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 

Birth, and early advantages of educiition — Enlists in the Mexican war — Returns home and studies 
law — Elected county clerk — Admitted to the bar — Elected Prosecuting Attorney of third 
judicial district — Sent to the Legislature — Married — Elected to Congress in 1858 and in 1860 
— Joins the army as a private at the battle of Bull Run — Colonel Slst Illinois volunteers — In 
battle of Belmont — At Fort McHenry — Wounded at Fort Donelson — Brigadier-General at 
Shiloh— In command at Jackson, Tennessee — Major-General of volunteei-s, November 29th, 
18t')2 — Takes part in the siege of Vicksburg — Saves the day at Raymond, Mississippi, May 12th, 
1853 — Makes the assault, June 25th, on Vicksburg — His column the first to enter the city of 
Vicksburg after its surrender — He is made its military governor — On furlougli at tlie North 
in the autumn of 18G3 — Commands the fifteenth army corps from November, 18G3 — Takes 
part in tlie march to Atlanta and its terrible fighting — "McPhei-son and revenge" — In the 
Presidential cani|)aign of 186-1 — .loins his corps at S;ivannah, and marches through the Caro- 
linas — Commander of tlie Army of the Tennessee — Appointed Minister to Slexico, but de- 
clined — Elected to the Fortieth Congress from the State at large — One of the impeachment 
managers — Re-elected to the Forty-fii'St and Forty-second Congresses — In 1871 elected a 
U. S. Senator — Becomes President Grant's eulogist and defender in 1872 406-471 

HON. JAMES F. "WILSON. 

His eminence as a lawyer — Birth and education — Removes to Fairfield, Iowa — A member of the 
Iowa constitutional convention — Civil appointments — Chosen State Senator — Be-elected^and 
made President of tlie Senate — Manifests remarkable ability — Elected to Congress, and 
tlirice re-elected— Appointed Chairman of the Judiciary Committee on the part of the House — 
Acquits himself with great ability — His speech on granting impartial suffrage in the District 
of Columbia — One of the impeachment managei-s — Repeatedly offered Cabinet positions and 
missions in Europe — In 1872 elected to the United States Senate 472-47o 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 

Moral and physical qualities often inherited — General Butler's ancestry — His birth — Enters 
Waterville college, Maine — Gi-aduates — Studies law — Voyage to Labrador — His indomitable 
energy, and fondness for work — His interest in politics — A democrat — Delegate to national 
conventions — A member of the Legislature, and of the constitutional convention — Opposes 
the Know-Nothing party vehemently — Is elected Brigadier-General by the militia officers, 
and receives his commission from Governor Gardner — A n)eniber of the State Senate — The 
measures advocated — A delegate to the Charleston Democratic Convention in 1800 — His con- 
duct there — Nominates Breckinridge — Unpopular at home — Visits Washington — He returns 
home, and urges Governor Andrew to prepare for war — Starts for Washington with three 
regiments, April H)th, 1801 — Landing at Annapolis — The march from Annapiilis to Washing- 
ton — Laying track all the way — In command of the department of Annapolis — Baltimore in 
rebel hands — Takes possession (if the city — At Fortress Monroe — Big Bethel — Slaves "con- 
traband of war" — Expedition to Fort Ilatteras — The New Orleans expedition — Butler com- 
mands the land forces — Ship Island— Takes possession of New Orleans — His occupation and 
government of the city — What he accomplished — He is relieved of his command — His ser- 
vices elsewhere in 1803— The New York riots — In command of the army of the James — The 
attack on Petersburg — The Dutch Gap Ciinal — Subsequent movements — Expedition against 
Fort Fisher — General Butler elected to the Fortieth Congress — One of the managers of the 
impeachment trial — His ability as a lawyor — Satirical jwwer — He squelches Fernando Wood 
— Supports President Grant's administration — Unpleasantness with some of the leading Re- 
publicans and Democrats— Runs for Governor of Massachusetts jn 1871, but is defeated — His 
character 476-194 



Xxil CONTENTS. 

HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 

Early struggles — Removal to Boston — Contributes to the newspapers of the day — Bemores to 
Philadelphia — Studies law, and is admitted to the bar — Appiunted Attorney-General of the 
State — Judge of the Court of Common Pleas — Extracts from an address before the Linnsean 
Society of Pennsylvania College — Elected to Congress, and three times returned — Counsel 
fi>r the Govemment in the privateer " Jeff. Davis " case — Speech on impartial suffrage — 
Other important speeches in Congress and abroad — Visit to the Southern States — Opposition 
to Mr. Johnson's policy — High character — One instance of his moral courage 495-603 

HEXRY LAUREXS DAWES. 

Born in " The Switzerland of America " — Education — Studies law and edits the Greenfield Gazette — 
Character— In 1848. '49, and '52 elected to the State Legislature — In ISoO State Senator — Dis- 
trict Attorney in lSo3 — Member of Congress — Chairman of various impv>rtant committees 
there 504-506 

BEXJAMIN GRATZ BROWX. 

Birth, ancestry and education — In 1852 a member of the State Legislature — Edits the Missouri 
Democrai — Advocates the Free Soil pi-inciples — His conduct during the war — In 1863 elected 
V . S. Senator for Missotiri — Serves on many imjwrtant committees — Governor of Missouri — 
His able administra.tion — Nominated Vice-President of the United States at the Convention 
at Cincinnati, in 1872 — His letter on the subject — Personal appearance, and character 507-514 

JOHN McAULEY PALMER. 

Successively cooper, peddler, teacher, and lawyer — Various legal and jiolitical appointments — 
Colonel of the 14th Illinois volunteers — His gallant exploits during the civil war — Major- 
Oeneral of volunteers — Joins, in 1865, the Feileral forces in Kentucky — In 1868 and 1870 
elected Governor of Illinois — Able administration — Character 515-523 

JOHN THOMAS HOFFMAN. 

studies law — Political career — Practises his profession — In 1S60 elected Recorder of the city of 
New York — Re-elected in 1863 — Mayor of New York in 1866 — Chairman in 1867 of the 
Democratic State Convention — Re-elected Mayor— Chosen Governor of the State in 1S68- 
Able and judicious administration — In 1870 re-elected Governor — Personal appearance, and 
character 524-533 

EDWIN D. MORGAN. 

Birth of Mr. Morgan — Becomes a partner — Removes to New York — Alderman.— Commissioner of 
Emigration — Governor in 1858 — Re-elected in 1860 — Great labors during the firet two years of 
the war — Major-General of volunteers — United States Senator — His course in the Senate — 
• ffered the position of Secretary of the Treasury, but declines it — Engages in commercial 
and financial enterprises 534-,^37 

JOSEPH RUSSELL HAWLEY. 

Journalist, soldier, and politician — Studies law — Edits the Hartford Ex^ming Press — His career 
during the late war — Ability as a soldier — Governor of Connecticut in 1866 — Cliaracter 5oS-542 

HORACE GREELEY. 

Birth— Family history— Hardships in early life — Early choice of a vocation— Boy life in Ver- 
mont — Teetotalism — Learns the printer's trade — The printing-office at East Poultney, Ver- 
mont — His extraordinary memory — Works at Sodus, New York, and at Erie, Pennsylvania — 
Resolves to try his fortunes in New York city — His description of liis entrj- into the metropo- 
lis—The pocket Testament— Other work— Partnership with 3Ir. Winchester— The j\eio 
y'jrktr prosperity — Marriage — The crisis of 1837 — Living through it— Mr. Greeley edits also 
the Jeffersoniau in 1S38, and the Log Cabin in 1840— Starting the Tribim't — His success — 
Fourierism — The monthly American Laborer — Book publishing — The Evening and jS-mi- 
Weekly Tribune — Burning of the Tribune office — Mr. Greeley in Congress — Great success of 
the Tribune — Mr. Greeley's " Hints towards Reform " — Visits England — His services to popu- 
lar literature there — His course during the war — Mobbing of the office — His "History of the 



CONTENTS. XXIU 

American Conflict," and other literary productions — " Wliat I Know About Farming " — His 
great influence — Gradually withdraws from the Administration — Nominated for the Presi- 
dency at the Liberal Republican Convention in Cincinnati, May, 1872 — The Democracy 
generally sanction the nomination — The address and platform of the Cincinnati Convention 
sent him — Mr. Greeley's reply — Withdraws from the editorship of the Tribune. — Charac- 
ter 543-574 

WILLIAM S. GROESBECK. 

Studies law in Albany, and practises his profession in Cincinnati — In 1856 Representative in Con- 
giess — Member of Committee on Foreign Affairs — In 18G8 counsel for President Johnson on 
his trial — Devotes his time latterly to his profession 575-576 

THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

Admitted to the bar in 1843 — Practises his profession in Indianapolis — ^Political career — In 1862 
elected U. S. Senator — Great influence in Indiana 577-578 

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

Apprenticeship — Indentured to a printer — Starts two or three papers — His decided anti-slavery 
views — His articles excite hostility — Lectures on slavery — Issues the first number of the 
LH'crator in January, 1831 — Organizes the New England Anti-Slavery Society — Visits Eng- 
land in 1S33 — His cordial reception there — American Anti-Slavery Society formed — .Mr. Gar- 
rison mobbed — The peace question — World's Anti-Slavery Convention — Mr. Garrison again 
in Europe in 1840 — His action during the war — Efforts for emancipation — Fort Sumter — At 
the close of the war withdraws from the American Anti-slavery Society — Visits England in 
1867 — A banquet given him by John Bright and others — Other honors — American testimonial 
of S33,000— His letter to a friend 579-592 

WENDELL PHILLIPS. 

Bemarka'ole scholarship — Avows himself a co-worker with Garrison — The thirty years' contest — 
His gifts as a public lecturer — His reply to tli^ Attorney-General at Faneuil Hall — Mr. Pliillips 
at the anniversiries of the American Anti Slavery Society — His power over his audiences — 
Mr. Delane of the London Times — Reforms advocated by Mr. Phillips — His versatility — In 
private life „ 593-601 

GERRIT SMITH. 

Studies law — His eloquence — anti-slavery views — Temperance — Hostility to tobacco— Prison re- 
form — Land reform — Gives away two hundred thous;ind acres of land, mostly in small farms 
and money with each^Troubles with his colonists — John Brown — Elected to Congress — Re- 
signs — Temporary insanity— Sustiuns the Government during tlie war — Helps to bail Jeffer- 
son Davis — Ilis religious views — His published works — In 1872 favors President Grant's re- 
election _ 602-606 

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

Popularity — Reasons for it — Versatility of talent — Remarkable industrj' — Cultivated taste — The 
Beecher family — Birth of Henry Waixl — His youthful training — Desire to go to sea — General 
Culture — Theological course — Professional career — Publishes lectures to young men — Edits 
an agricultural paper — Called to Plymouth church, Brooklyn — Peculiarity of his preaching — 
Growth of his church — Increase of his salary — Outside work — Care of his body and brain — His 
immense labors — Goes to Europe — Speaks there in behalf of his country — Labors for the 
soldiers — Edits the Christian Union — In 1872 supfwrts President Grant — His leaning to exces- 
sive mercy to the South — His earnest patriotism G07-619 

MATTHEW SIMPSON D.D., LL.D. 

Classical and philosophical studies — Graduates M.D. in 1833 — Devotes himself to the ministry — 
Elected bishop in 18.52 — A hard worker — Intimate friend of President Lincoln — Great eff'orts 
for his country's welfare 620-623 

JAY COOKE. 

Education — Early employments — Accepts a situation with E. W. Clark A Co. — Becomes a partner 
at twenty-one — Leading partner in the firm — Retires from the firm in 1858 — Forms a partner- 



XXIV OOSTBXTS. 

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ALEXA^'PEH Tl'K^'EY STEWART. 

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ABIEL ABBOT LOW. 

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ULYSSES SIMFSOX GRAXT, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



1 



'X all human history, vrhenever a nation has been rent bv 
internal convulsionss, or threatened with destructicn bv 
fo]>ngu invasion, the ooeasion has always developed 
^ some gre^t leader to command its armies, or restore 
peace between its embittered factions. 

In tracing the lives of the men thus called to leadership, 
three tacts constantly attract our notice. They are almost, 
without exception, of and from the people; rarely or never 
from the aristocratic class. Though intelligent and thoughtful 
men, they have usually led quiet and ot\en obscure lives till 
called to their great duties, and not unseldom, neither they nor 
their friends were aware of the power which was held in reserve 
in them. And. dually, they have not been the men first selected 
by popular acclaim, for the work which they accomplish. 

President Grant has been no exception to these general laws. 
He is a raan of the people : though educated for the army and 
serving in it for some ye^irs in a sul>irdinate capacity, his life 
had been quiet and obscure, and neither he nor his friends were 
conscious of his possession of these rare faculties which he sub- 
sequently displayed. Moreover, in those days, when General 
McClellan was reganled as the " coming man," there seemed as 
little probability that this plain taciturn brigadier at the West, 



18 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

would become the general-in-chief of all our armies, and later, 
the President of the United States, as that the diminutive sub- 
lieutenant of the French army would become Emperor of 
France, and arbiter of the destinies of Europe. 

President Grant is descended from Matthew Grant, a native of 
Plymouth, England, or its vicinity, who emigrated to Dorches- 
ter. Massachusetts, in 1630, and to Windsor, Connecticut, in 
1636. His son and grandson, both named Samuel, settled in 
the adjacent town of Tolland. Noah, a son of the second 
Samuel, removed to Coventry, Connecticut, and two of his sens, 
tsToah and Solomon, were officers (captain and lieutenant) in the 
Provincial army, in the old French war, and both were slain at 
Crown Point, or its vicinity, in 1756. Captain Noah Grant 
left a fiimily in Coventry, and his eldest son, also Noah, entered! 
the Continental army at the beginning of the Revolutionary 
war, as lieutenant of militia, and remained in it till its close, 
and, though in many battles, was never wounded. After the 
Avar he settled in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where his 
son, Jesse Root Grant, one of a numerous family, was born, in 
January, 1794. The father removed in 1799 to what is now 
Columbiana county, and in 1805 to Portage county, Ohio. 

At the age of sixteen, Jesse was apprenticed to his half- 
brother, then living at Maysville, Kentucky, to learn the tan- 
ning business, and after serving his time, he set up for himself at 
Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio. Here several years of toil 
were followed by a severe and protracted illness from inter- 
mittent feve-r. In 1820 he removed to Point Pleasant, Ohio, 
twenty-live miles above Cincinnati, and the same year married 
Miss Hannah Simpson, of Clermont county, Ohio. Their eldest 
ahild, Ulysses Simpson Grant, or as he was christened, Iliram 
Ulysses Grant, was born at Point Pleasant, April 27, 1822. 

His father, who is yet living, and then an enterprising ana 



ULYSSES SIMPSON" GRANT. 19 

self-reliant business man, was ready to enter upon any lionest 
undertaking whiuh gave a promise of success. He continued 
iais business as a tanner, but did not confine himself exclusively 
to that, and whatever he undertook prospered. The mother 
of the President is also still living, a woman of sound judgment, 
marked and superior moral and mental traits and endowments, 
a sincere and consistent Christian, whose steadiness, firmness, 
and strength of character have impressed themselves indelibly 
upon her children. 

The young Ulysses is said to have developed, almost from 
infauc}', a remarkable passion for horses. From the age of five 
years, his father states, he would ride the horses to water, stand- 
ing up on their bare backs, and at eight or nine would stand up 
on one foot and drive them at full speed. At seven and a half 
years he harnessed and drove a horse alone all day, climbing 
into the manger to put the bridle and collar on. At eight and 
a half, he would drive a team day after day hauling wood, and 
at ten would manage a pair of spirited horses on a long journey, 
with ])^Ject skill and safety. So complete was his mastery of 
horses that he broke them with great facility, and no horse 
could throw him. From the various incidents which his father, 
with a pardonable pride, relates of him. we find evidence 
of his possessing, even in childhood, the qualities of sj'stem, 
method, calculation, self-possession, and that cot)l imperturbable 
courage and persistency which have since marked his churacter. 
"His judgment was beyond his years. Few boys in their tw«^fth 
year could have been trusted to go to a large city two hundred 
miles distant, and take a deposition to be used elsewhere in a 
lawsuit; and fewer still, at the same age, would have had th) 
judgment and mechanical tact to lo;id upon a wagon a number 
of pieces of heavy timber a ff)ot sc^uare, and fo'irtoen feet long 
with no aid except that of a horse. 



20 MEN OF OUK ©AY. 

His solf-pobsession and imperturbability ^vere fairly illus- 
trated in an incident which his lather relates of him as occurrin2 
when he was about twelve years old. 

"He drove a pair of horses to Augusta, Kentucky, twelve miles 
from Georgetown, and was persuaded to remain over night, in 
order to bring back two young ladies, who would not be ready 
to leave until the next morning. The route lay across White 
Oak Creek. The Ohio river had been rising in the night, and 
the back water in the creek was so high, when they came to 
cross it in returning, that tlie tirst thing they knew the horses 
were swimming, and tlie- water was up to their own waists. 
The ladies were terribly frightened, and began to scream. In 
the midst of the excitement, Ulysses, who was on a forward 
seat, looked back to the ladies, and with an air perfectly undis- 
turbed, merely said : '■Dont speak — / icn'll take you throvgh sate.'' " 

He was popular with his schoolfellows and the boys of his 
age, and though not a talker or boaster, not tyrannical or ir^- 
perious, not quarrelsome or violent, he fell naturally into his 
place as a leader among the boys. He was not remarkable as 
a scholar, though fond of matliematics and maintaining a 
creditable position in his studies generally. For the rest, he 
was a manly, active, industrious boy, with a clear head, a kind 
heart, a well balanced judgment, fond of all outdoor sports and 
labors, and with a well knit frame and a constitution of great 
vitality and endurance. 

Tiliough always ready to work, he had a special dislike for 
the tanning business, and whenever called upon to do any work 
in connection with the tannery, he would tind something else 
to do, and liire a boy to work there in his place. When In- 
was a little more than sixteen years of aue, his father called 
upon him one day to work w ith him in the beam-room of the 
tannery He obeyed, but expressed to his father the strong 



ULYSSES SIMPSON' GRANT, 21 

dislike he felt for the business, £nd his determination not to 
follow it after he came of age. His father replied that he did 
not wish him to work at it unless he was disposed to follow it 
in after life, and inquired what business he Avould like to enter 
upon. He answered that he would like either to be a farmer, 
a down-the-river trader, or to get an education. The first two 
avocations his father thought out of the question, as he was 
then situated, but inquired how he would like to go to the 
Military Academy at West Point. This suited the boy exactly, 
and the father hearing that there was a vacancy in his own 
Congressional District, then represented by the Hon. (afterward 
General) Thomas S. Hamer, made application, and Ulysses was 
appointed immediately, and in the summer of 1839, was admit- 
ted as a cadet in the Military Academy. The standard of 
admission at West Point was then very low, and he was below 
most of his eighty-seven classmates in scholarship. Several of 
them had graduated from college before entering the Academy, 
and all had enjoyed much better advantages than he, yet at 
the end of the four years' course, only thirty-nine graduated, 
and among these [Jlysses S. Grant stood twenty-first — midway 
of the class. He ranked high in mathematics and in all cavalry 
exercises, and had made good progress in engineering and 
fortification studies. His demerits were almost wholly of a 
trivial character, violations of some of the minor regulations of 
etiquette, in the buttoning of his coat, the tying of his cravat or 
shoes, or matters of that sort. 

Dr. Coppde, now President of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania, who was at West Point with Grant, says of him : 
" I rojnember him as a plain, common sense, straight-forward 
youth quiet, rather of the old head on the young shoulders 
order, shunning notoriety ; quite contented while others were 
grum^^ling; taking to his military duties in a very business-like 



22 MEN OF OUK DAY. 

manner , not a prominent man in the corps, but respected by all 
and ver}^ popular with his friends. The soubriquet of " Uncla 
Sam"' was given him there, when every good fellow has a nick- 
name, from these very qualities ; indeed he was a very uncle- 
like sort of youth. He was then and always an excellent 
horseman, and his picture rises before me as I write, in the old 
torn-coat, obsolescent leather gig-top, loose riding pantaloons 
with spurs buckled over them, going with his clanging saber 
to the drill-hall. He exhibited but little enthusiasm in any 
thing; his best standing was in the mathematical branches and 
their application to tactics and military engineering." 

On his grad nation in 1843, cadet (irant was assigned a posi- 
tion as brevet second lieutenant of the fourth regiment, United 
States Infantry, and joined his regiment in the autumn of that 
year, at Jefferson Ban'acks, near St. Louis, Missouri. He had 
a classmate, Frederick T, Dent, who was from St. Louis, and 
who had been assigned like himself to the fourth intantrv. The 
two were warm friends, and Lieutenant Dent (now Brigadier- 
General Dent, on Gen. Sherman's staff) took his classmate to his 
own home, whenever they could obtain leave. Here lie formed 
the acquaintance of the estimable huly, then Miss Maria Dent, 
whom five years subsequently he married. His stay at Jeffer- 
son Barracks was not long. Li less than a year he was ordered 
to Camp Salubrity, Natchitoches, Louisiana, and a year later to 
the Mexican frontier, under the order for military occupation 
of Texas. There, on the 30th of September, 1845. he attained 
his commission as second lieutenant, and by special favor, was 
allowed to remain in ilie fourth infantry, though his appoint- 
ment was originally made out to the seventh. When th^war 
with Mexico at last commenced, the fourth infantry formed a 
part of General Zachary Taylor's army of occupation, and 
Lieutenant Grint took as active a part as his rank and positiou 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 23 

permitted, in the battles of Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, — Eesaca de 
la Palina, May 9, — Monterey, September 21-23, where bis 
gallant conduct received honorable mention I'rom his comman- 
der, and in the siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1817. On the 
1st of April, he was appointed quartermaster of the fourth 
infantry, preparatory to the long and difficult march upon the 
city of Mexico, and he held this position from that time, to 
July 23, 1848, after the close of the ^[exican war. But though 
his early experiences qualified him to fill this position with 
great ability, he did not, as by the army regulations he might, 
consider himself excused from service in the field. He was in 
nearly every battle of the campaign ; at Cerro Gordo, April 17- 
18, 1847, at San Antonio, August 20, at Churubusco, the same 
day, at Molino del Key, September 8, where his gallant and 
meritorious conduct procured him a brevet of first lieutenant, 
and the praise of his commander, at the storming of Chapultepec, 
September 13, where he won a brevet of captain and the 
encomiums of that stern old soldier General Worth, and at the 
assault and capture of the city of Mexico, September 13-18, 
1847, where he obtained the more substantial honor of a 
promotion, two days later, to the first lieut 'nancy in his regi- 
ment. After the war, he was assigned to garrison duty at 
Sackett's Harbor, New York, for a year, then again made 
quartermaster of his regiment, which position he held for four 
years, to September 30, 1853. He had married in 1848, soon 
after his return from Mexico, and the next four years were 
passed in quiet garrison duty, at Sackett's Harbor, Detroit, 
Michigan, again at Sackett's Harbor, and at Fort Columbus, 
New York. But in 1852, he was assigned to duty at Benicia, 
California, and subsequently at Columbia Barracks, and at Fort 
Vancouver, Oregon, and Fort Humboldt, California. In August, 
1853, he attained to a captaincy, and after another year's service 



24 MEN OF OUR PAY. 

on the Pacific slope, lie resigned liis commission, July 31. 1854 
He was prompted to this step bv several considerations. It 
was a time of peace, and the prospect of rapid promotion was 
slight, especially to a man who had not thus far developed 
those brilliant qualities, which sometimes enable a man to mount 
rapidly, even in pence, the ladder of promotion ; the pay of a 
captain in the regular army, especially with the great cost of 
every thing on the Pacific coast at that time, was not sufficient 
to furnish more than a bare support to a man with a family ; 
he wj« liable to be assigned almost constantly, as he had been 
for two years already, to duty on frontier posts, where he could 
not take his ftimily, And where the associations were unpleasant. 
He was now thirty-two years old, and if he was to be any thing 
more than a poor, army captain, it was time that he should 
make a beginning. Such are the reasons assigned by his family 
for this step, which seemed for a time to be an unfortunate one. 
Shall we add another, which there is everv reason for believinsc 
to be true, and which, rightly considered, does him honor ? In 
the monotony and tedium of barrack and garrison life, and 
surrounded by rough associates, he had formed the habit, it is 
said, of drinking freely, and that habit was becoming so marked, 
that the War Department had thought it necessary to reprove 
him for it. By abandoning his associates and the associations 
in which he had been thrown on the Pacific coast, there was an 
opp-ortunity for him to enter npon a new life, and to abstain 
thenceforward from this ruinous indulgence. He returned to 
the east, and having rejoined his family, who had remained at 
his fathers, duriug his absence on the Pacific, he remove^l to 
the vicinity of St. Louis, where his father-in-law had given his 
wife a small farm, and his lather had stockevi it. Captain Grant 
put in practice his resolution to abandon all intoxicating drinks, 
and labored zciilouslv on his farm for four vears. President 



ULYSSES SIMPSON' GRANT. 2o 

C!opp(5e speaks of having met liira at St. Louis in his farmer's 
rig, whip in hand, and having enjoyed a very pleasant inter- 
view with bim, at which Joseph J. Eejnolds, Don Carlos Buell, 
and Major Chapman of the cavalry were also present. He adds, 
"If Grant had over used spirits, as is not unlikely, I distinctly 
remember that, upon the proposal being made to drink. Grant 
said, ' I will go in and look at you, for I never drink any 
thing ;' and the other officers who saw him frequently, afterward 
told me that he drank nothing but water." 

But he was not destined to succeed as a former. He was 
industrious, steady, and economical, but it was all in vain. In 
1858, he relinquished the larm and moved into St. Louis, and at 
first undertook the real-est^^te business with a man named 
Boggs, but after a few months' trial, finding that the business 
was not sufficient to support both families, he relinquished it to 
his pai'tner and sought for something else. He next obtained a 
position in the custom house, but the death of the collector who 
appointed him, caused him to lose that in a few months. He 
had endeavored while on his farm to eke out his scanty income 
by occasionally acting as collector, as auctioneer, etc., but with- 
out any considerable success. 

Meanwhile, his fother had been prospering, and had, in con- 
nection with two of his younger sons, established a leather and 
harness store at Galena, Illinois. He now ofiered Ulysses a posi- 
tion and interest in this store, which was gladly and thankfully 
accepted. For two years he continued in this business, which 
seemed better suited to his tastes than the farm. 

It is s;\id, that up to this time he had been a Democrat in bis 
political views. With his father's strong Whig and Eepublican 
sentiments, this hardly seems probable. It is more credible 
that, as he himseF is reported to have said, he had not voted 
for years, and had taten very little interest in national aftaira 



26 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

The education and general tone of feeling among the oflBcera 
of the army, had made them, to a great extent, sympathizers 
with the South, pro-slavery in their views, and opposed 
to the Eepublicans, whom they regarded as, in some sort, the 
Abolitionists under a new name. IIow far Captain Gniut shared 
tho^ feelings, is uncertiiin. 

One thing we know, he possessed that fine soldierly instinct 
of honor and loyalty, which was wanting in so many of his for- 
mer comrades. When the Southern troops tired on the nation- 
al flag at Sumter, he only knew that it was his country which 
was assiuled, and thenceforward there was no question of poli- 
ticks, '• On that morning of April 15, 1S61." s^us a lady friend, 
who was in his taniily, " he laid down the paper containing the 
account of the bombaniment^ walked round the counter, and 
drew on his coat, saying : ' I am for the war to put down this 
wicked rebellion. The Government educated me for the army, 
and though 1 served faithfully through one war. I feel still a 
little in debt for my education, and am ready to discharge the 
obligation.' " He went out into the streets of Galena, aided 
in organizing and drilling a company of volunteers, with whom 
he marched to Spriugdekl, the capital of the State. He had no 
ambition to serve as commander of this company, and hence 
declined their nomination of him for captain. Hon. E. B. 
"VTashburne, then member of Congress from the Galena District, 
and liis firm friend, then and since, accompanied him to Spring- 
iicld, and introduced him to Governor Yates, who at ouce of- 
fered him the position of adjutant-general, which he accepted, 
and filled very successfully. When the first quotas from Illinois 
hat.1 been organized, and mostly mustered into service, Adjutant- 
General Grant made a flying visit to his father at Covington, 
Kentucky^, and while there. Governor Yates, finding that the 
colonel of the 21st Illinois volunteer regiment was eutirelj? 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 27 

unfit for Lis position, removed Iiin*i, and telegrapbed Grant 
that he had appointed him to the vacancy. He was on his 
way to Springfield at that time, and immediately assumed com- 
mand. In a short time they were under most admirable di'^ci- 
pline, and an alarm occurring in regard to a Rebel attack upon 
Quincy, Illinois, he marched them thither on foot, a distance 
of one hundred and twenty miles, a feat at that time considered 
most extraordinary. 

The tirst service to which the 21st Illinois was assigned, was 
to guard the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. Several regi- 
ments having been oixlered to this service, it was necessary that 
one of the regimental commanders should become acting brig- 
adier-general, and control the whole, as no brigadier-general 
had been assigned to the command. For this office Grant, who, 
though the youngest colonel on the ground, was the only gra- 
duate of West Point, was selected, and took command at Mexico, 
Missouri, July 31, ISOl. On the 9th of August, Colonel Grant 
was commissioned brigadier-general (his commission dating 
from the 17th of May), and sent with an adequate force to 
southern Missouri, where the rebel General Jeff. Thompson was 
threatening an advance. He visited Ironton, superintended the 
erection of fortifications there and at Marble creek, and, leaving 
a garrison in each place to defend it, hastened to JeSersou City, 
which was afso threatened, and protected it from rebel attacks 
for ten days, when Thompson, having abandoned his purpose, 
General Grant left the Missouri capital to enter upon the com- 
mand of the important district of Cairo. 

It was while he was in southern Missouri, his biographers 
Bay, that he issued his famous special order concerning Mrs. 
Selvidge's pie. The incident, which illustrates somewhat forci- 
bly the quiet humor which is a marked charactei istic of the 
presi lent, was something lik ,• this 



28 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

In the rapid marches of- his force in Southern Missouri their 
rations were often scanty, and not very palatable, but the regioD 
was poor and sparsely settled, and, for the most part, there waa 
no chance of procuring food from the inhabitants of the country 
through which they were passing. At length, ho .vever, they 
emerged into a better and more cultivated section, md Lieute- 
nant Wickham, of an Indiana cavalry regiment, who was in 
command of the advanced guard of eighty men, halted at a 
farm-house of somewhat more comfortable appearance than any 
which they had passed, and entered the building with two 
second lieutenants. Pretending to be Brigadier-General Grant, 
he demanded food for himself and his staff. The family, whose 
loyalty was somewhat doubtful, alarmed at the idea of the Union 
general being on their premises, hastily brought forward the 
best their house afforded, at the same time loudly protesting 
their attachment to the Union cause. The lieutenants ate their 
fill, and, offering to compensate their hosts, were told that there 
was nothing to pay ; whereupon they went on their way, chuck- 
ling at their adroitness in getting so good a dinner for nothing. 
Soon after. General Grant, who had halted his army for a short 
rest a few miles further back, came up, and being rather favor- 
ably impressed with the appearance of the farm-house, rode up 
to the door and asked them if they would cook him a meal. 
The woman, who grudged the food already furnished to the 
self-styled general and his staff, replied gruffly, " No ! General 
Grant and his staff have just been here, and eaten every thing 
in the house, except one pumpkin-pie." 

"Ah !" said Grant ; " v/hat is your name ?" 

" Selvidge," answered the woman. 

Tossing her a half-dollar, the general asked, " Will you keep 
that pie until I send an officer for it ?" 

" I will," said the woman. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 20 

The general and staff rode on, and soon a camping ground 
was selected, and the regiments were notified that there would 
be a grand parade at half-past six for orders. This was unusual, 
and neither officers nor men could imagine what was coming. 
The parade w^as formed, however, ten columns deep, and a quar- 
ter of a mile in length. After the usual review, the assistant 
adjutant-general read the following: 

"Headquarters, Army in the Field. 
*' Special Order, No. . 

"Lieutenant Wickham, of the Indiana Cavalry, having on 
this day eaten every thing in Mrs. Selvidge's house, at the cross- 
ing of the Ironton and Pocahontas and Black river and Cape 
Girardeau roads, except one pumpkin pie. Lieutenant Wickham 
is hereby ordered to return with an escort of one hundred 

cavalry, and eat that pie also. 

"U. S. GRANT, 

" Brigadiei'-general commanding." 

The attempt to evade this order was useless, and at seven 
o'clock the lieutenant filed out of camp with his hundred men, 
amid the cheers of the whole army. The escort witnessed the 
eating of the pie, the whole of which the lieutenant succeeded 
in devouring, and returned to camp. 

The post of Cairo, the headquarters of the district tu the 
command of which General Grant was now ordered, was one, 
from its position, of great importance to the Union cause. It 
commanded both the Ohio and the Upper Mississippi, and was 
the depot of supplies for an extensive region above, and subse- 
quently below. Grant's command extended along the shores 
of the Mississippi as far as Cape Girardeau, and on the Ohio to 
the mouth of Green river, and included western Kentucky. 
That State, at this time, was trying to maintain a neutral posi- 
tion, favoring neither the Union nor the rebels, a position 
which was as absurd as it was soon found to be impossible.. 



30 MEN OF OUR PAT. 

The rebeU were the first to cross the lines, and take possession 
of the uuportaut towns of Columbus and Hickman, on the 
Mi.-^is<ippi, and Bowling Green, on the Green river, all of 
w.iich they fortifieti. General Grant was apprized of the.-f io- 
la . s of Kentucky's professed neutrality, and as they att".- ded 
h. Ample justification for occupying positions withii ihe 
S. . he quietly sent a body of troops, on the 6th of Septeuti^er, 
up the Ohio to Padueah, a town at the mouth of the Tennessee, 
and took possession of it at the time when the secessionists 
there were looking for the entry of the rebel troops, Avho were 
marching to occupy it. The rage of these enemies of the coun- 
try can be better imagined than described. Eebel flags \vere 
flaunted in the faces of our troops, and they were told that they 
should not long retain possession of the town. 

This did not, however, in the least disturb the equanimity of 
General Grant. He issued a proclamation to the inhabitants in- 
forming them of his reasons for taking possession of the town, 
and that he was preparev.! to defend the citizens against the en- 
emy ; and added, significantly, that he had nothing to do with 
opinions, but should deal only with armed relvllion, and its 
aiders and abettors. 

On the 25th of September he dispatched a force to Smitbland 
at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and took possession of 
that town also. The principal avenues through which the re- 
bels had obtained supplies of food, clothing, arms, and ammuni- 
tion, from the Xorth, were thus efiectually closed. 

When General Grant was assigned to the command at Cairo, 
General McClernand's brigade and s».^me other troops were 
a died to his own brigade. Having taken possession of Pad.icah 
and Smithland, he now began to turn his attention to Colum- 
bus, Kentucky, an important position, held by the rebel Major- 
Genenil Polk (a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 



ULYSSES SIMPSON' GRANT. 31 

OhurclO, witli a force of twenty thousand men. He had nearly 
completed his arrangements for attaekiug this post, when the 
Government oixlered him to send live of his regiments to St. 
Louis. This left him too weak to make the attack with any hope 
of success. 

On tlie 16th of October, General Grant, having learne<^l that 
the rebel General Jeff. Thompson was approaching Pilot Knob, 
Missouri, and evidently purposing an extensive raid through 
southeastern Missouri, ordered fifteen hundred men, under 
Colonel Plummer, then stationed at Cape Girardeau, to move 
tr)\vards Frederick town, Missouri, by way of Jackson and Dal- 
las, forming a junction at the latter place with Colonel Carlin, 
who had been ordered to move with three thousand men from 
another point, and, pursuing Thompson, to defeat and rout his 
lorce. The expeditions were successful. Thompson was found 
on the 2lst of October, not tar from Dallas, on the Greenville 
road, and, after an action of two and a half hours, defeated and 
routed with very heavy loss. Colonel Plummer captured, in 
this engagement forty-two prisoners and one twelve-pounder. 

By this expedition. General Grant ascertained the position 
and strength of Jeff. Thompson's forces, and learned also that 
the rebels were concentrating a considerable force at Belmont, 
Missouri, nearly opposite Columbus, Kentucky, with a view to 
blockade tlie ^{ississippi river, and to move speedily upon his 
position at Cairo. Having received orders to that effect from 
his superior officers. General Grant resolved to break up this 
camp, although aware that the reb Is could be reinforced tu al- 
most any extent from Columbus, Kentucky. 

On th ' evening of the tith of November, General Grant em- 
barked two brigades, in all about two thousand eight hundred 
and fifty men, under his own and General McCleruand's c*)m- 
maD'\ on board river steamers, and moved down the Missis- 



82 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

sippi. He had previously detacbed small bodies of troops to 
threaten Columbus from dift'erent directions, and to deceive the 
rebels as to his intentions. The ruse was successful, and the 
force which he commanded in person reached the vicinity of 
Belmont, and landed before the enemy had comprehended their 
intention. The Union troops, disembarking with great prompt- 
ness, marched rapidly towards the rebel camp, a distance of 
about two and a half miles, and, forcing their way through a 
dense abatis and other obstructions, charged through the camp, 
capturing their camp equipage, artillery, and small-arms, and 
burned the tents, blankets, etc. They also took a large number 
of prisoners. The rebel force at the camp was not far from 
4000, but General Polk, learning of the attack, sent over as re- 
inforcements eight regiments, or somewhat more than 4000 
more troops, under the command of Generals Pillow and Cheat- 
ham, and finally crossed the river himself and took command. 
General Grant having accomplished all, and more than he ex- 
pected, and being aware that Belmont was covered by the bat- 
teries at Columbus, and that heavy reinforcements could be read- 
ily sent from thence, made no attempt to hold the position, but 
withdrew in good order. On their way to their transports, the 
Union troops were confronted by the fresh rebel force under 
Polk's command, and a severe battle ensued, during which a 
considerable number of the rebel prisoners made their escape ; 
and there were heavy losses in killed and wounded on both 
s'des, the Union loss amounting to nearly one hundred killed, 
and four hundred or five hundred wounded and missing, the 
lamer part of whom were prisoners. What was the exact rebel 
loss has never transpired, but it is known to have been larger 
than this, the number of prisoners alone exceeding the total 
Union loss. The Union troops at length succeeded in reaching 
their transports and re embarking, under the protection of the 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 33 

gunboats Tyler and Lexington, "whicli had convo ;ed them, 
bringing with them two cannon which they had captured, and 
spiking two others, which they were obliged to abandon. 

On the 20th of December, General Halleck, who was then in 
command of the western department, reorganized the districts 
of his command, and enlarged the district of Cairo, including in 
it all the southern portion of Illinois, all of Kentucky west of 
the Cumberland river, and the southern counties of Missouri^ 
and appointed Brigadier-General Grant commander of the new 
district. The large numbers of troops newly mustered in, which 
were pouring into the district, kept the commander and his sub- 
ordinate ofl&cers very busy for five or six weeks in organizing, 
training, and distributing them to the points where their ser- 
vices were required. Desirous of testing the capacity and en- 
durance of his raw troops, tor the severe work which was be- 
fore them, Brigadier-General Grant made, on the 14th of Janu- 
ary, 1862, a reconnoissance in force into southeastern Missouri, 
which proved successful in all respects. He next, while keep- 
ing up a feint of attacking Columbus, Kentucky, prepared to- 
co-operate with the gunboat flotilla, under the command of Flag 
Officer A. H. Foote, in an attack upon the two rebel forts on the 
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Forts Henry and Donelson. 
This attack was first suggested by that able officer. General 
Charles F. Smith, who died shortly after the battle of Shiloh, 
but it was pressed upon General Halleck, then in command of 
the Department of the Mississippi, by General Grant, with such 
pertinacity and earnestness, that it was finally ordered by that 
officer. The attack on Fort Henry, a small but strong work on 
the Tennessee river, was first in the order of time, and General 
Grant's part in it was delayed by the condition of the roads so 
much that General Tilghman, who was in command had time 

to send off most of his troops to Fort Donelson, and surrendered 
3 



84 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

the remainder to Flag-officer Foote after a brief action, before 
General Grant reached the immediate vicinity of the fort. 

Grant proceeded immediately to attack the much more con- 
siderable fortress of Donelson, on the Cumberland, which here 
approaches within a few miles of the Tennessee. This fortress had 
a garrison of fifteen or sixteen thousand rebel troops, and was 
Qot a remarkably strong work, though from its position it wa3 
somewhat difficult to carry by assault. Grant had about 16,000 
troops with him, most of whom had not been in any action, and 
the number was insufficient to invest so large a fort properly. 
He was reluctant, however, to await the coming of the gun- 
boats, which had carried off the glory at Fort Henry, and hence 
commenced operations at once, and carried some of the out- 
works. The gunboats came up on the morning of the lith 
(the Carondelet having arrived the previous day, and made a 
short assault, but without particular result), and went into 
action, while an attack was made by the troops on the land- 
side. Unfortunately, the best gunboats were soon disabled, 
and Flag-officer Foote himself wounded, and they were com- 
pelled to withdraw ; and the land attack was not simultaneous, 
or forcibly delivered. The assault upon, or siege of a fort, was 
new business to the national troops, and their commander had 
had but little experience in it ; but he resolved to besiege the 
enemy. The next morning, however, before the arrangements 
for the siege were fully completed, the rebels made a sortie, 
broke the Union line, and captured two batteries of artillery. 
The Union troops rallied, and retook most of their guns ; but 
the conflict was of uncertain issue, and could have been easily 
turned in favor of either side, when General Grant, who had 
been coolly looking on, ordered General Charles F. Smith's 
divisi )n to charge the enemy. The order was obeyed with 
great spirit by the veteran officer, and General Grant followed 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 35 

it by ordering up Lew. Wallace's division, whicli had broken 
in the morning, bat which now charged bravely at the other 
end of the line. These divisions gained a position within the 
outer lines of the fort; and Generals Pillow and Floyd, who 
were the senior rebel generals in command, were convinced 
that the fort would be captured, and insisted on making their 
escape. General Buckner protested, but in vain. They fled 
before daylight, taking a few troops with them ; and Buckner, 
who had been at West Point with Grant, sent a flag of truce, 
on the morning of February 16th, to the Union headquarters, 
asking for an armistice, and the appointment of commissioners 
to agree upon terms of capitulation. Grant's answer has become 
historic, as it deserved. It was : — " No terms, other than uncon- 
ditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to 
move immediately upon your works." This brought the haughty 
Buckner to terms, and though protesting against " the ungenerous 
and unchivalrous terms," he -lurrendered at once ; and 14,623 
prisoners, and a large amount of materials of war, were de- 
livered over to the Union general. This success was due 
mainly to three causes — the superior fighting qualities of 
Grant's force, though raw troops ; the calmness and coolness 
of the general himself, which enabled him to discern the 
favorable moment for a bold and decisive stroke when the con- 
flict was evenly poised ; and the cowardice and weakness of 
the rebel generals. As a siege, or a systematic action for the 
reduction of a fort, it would not bear criticism ; and we doubt 
not the general himself is as fully aware of this, and would 
now criticise it as severely as any one else. 

After the capture of Donelson, and the occupation of Clarks- 
ville and Nashville by Buell's forces, General Grant came near 
falling into disfavor with General Halleck for trespassing upon 
General Buell's command. He was however speedily forgiven, 



36 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and sent foiward to the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, to 
select a camp for his army, and bring it up to a suitable 
point for giving battle to the rebels. There can be no question 
that Corinth should have been the place selected, and that, for 
two or three weeks, it might have been seized and held without 
difficulty. Failing in this, through manifold delays, the camp 
should have been on the north bank of the Tennessee. Instead 
of this, by some blunder it was located near the south bank of 
the river, at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh Church, and the 
troops as they came up were allowed to choose their locations 
very much as they pleased ; and though they were less than 
twenty miles from the enemy's camp, no patrols or pickets were 
maintained in the direction of the enemy, nor any breastworks 
erected ; and all was ease and unconcern. General Grant's 
headquarters were at Savannah, six miles below, and the troops 
as they arrived were sent forward. Meantime, the rebels were 
at Cor.inth, under the command of the ablest general of their 
army, General Albert Sydney Johnston, and, having acccumu- 
lated a large force, were ready to take the offensive. Grant had 
been promoted to be major-general of volunteers, dating from 
February 16th, 1862, the day of the surrender of Fort Donel- 
son, and had been in command of the district of West Ten- 
nessee from March 5th ; but he seems not to have had any pre- 
vision of the magnitude of the coming battles, if indeed his 
easy victory at Fort Donelson, had not inspired him with a 
doubt whether there would be a battle at all. He evidently 
did not consider it imminent, for he had sent word to Buell 
that he need not hasten. It was to this picturesque, but de- 
cidedly unmilitary collection of camps, that the rebel general^ 
A. S. Johnston, one of the ablest soldiers of the present cen- 
tury, was approaching, with a force of over 40,000 men, od 
the 2d of April, 1862, and anticipating, as he had a right to 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 37 

do, an easy victory. The heavy rain and deep mud delayed 
him for three days within six or eight miles of the Union 
camp, but no one discovered his approach. On the morning of 
the 6th of April he attacked Prentiss's division ; and though 
they made a gallant resistance, for men utterly surprised, they 
W3re soon broken, and many of them taken prisoners. Sher- 
man's division held their ground firmly for a time, and finally, 
by falling back a short distance, obtained a better position, 
from which they were only partially pushed back during the 
day. Hurlburt's and W. H. L. Wallace's divisions were par- 
tially broken, but fought sturdily, yet despairingly, through 
the day. The fugitives and deserters were numerous, and the 
whole force was driven back for nearly two and a half miles, 
till they only occupied about half a mile on the river bank. 
The outlook seemed a gloomy one, but the occasion was one 
which developed all the great qualities of Grant. On Jie field 
from ten o'clock, A. M., directing, with the utmost coolness and 
imperturbability, the movements of the troops — ordering the 
gathering of the scattered artillery, and massing it where it 
could be used most effectually upon the enemjf — availing him- 
self of the gunboats as soon as possible, to protect by their fire 
the position of his troops — noticing every thing that Avas trans 
piring, and yet to all human appearance the calmest and most 
self-possessed man on the field — his conduct during the battle 
merits only the highest praise. Toward the close of the day, 
an officer said to him, " Does not the prospect begin to look 
gloomy ?" " Not at all," was his quiet reply ; " they can't 
force our lines around these batteries to-night — it is too late. 
Delay counts every thing with us. To-morrow we shall attack 
them with fresh troops, and drive them, of course!" He was 
right. The enemy, exhausted, and suffering from the heavy 
fire of the batteries and gunboats, could not dislodge them that 



88 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

niglit ; and during the nigLt Lew. Wallace's division crossed 
the river, and Buell came up read/ to cross. The contest 
of the next day, April 7th, though a sharp one, was in favor 
of the Union troops from the beginning, and by a little after 
noon the rebels, who had lost their commanding general the 
day before, were in full retreat. 

The losses were about equal, and amounted in both armies, 
in killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners, to nearly 30,000. 
Grant's army held their position, and the rebels fell back ; the 
former were therefore entitled to claim it as a victory, but it was 
a costly one. General Halleck now took the field in person, ai)d 
under the pretence of making Grant his second in command, 
virtually took all command from him. This led to a coolness 
between the two, and Grant was for a time greatly depressed in 
spirits. He took part in the siege of Corinth, but was constantly 
hampered by the dilatoriness of his chief. After General Hal- 
leck was called to Washington as general-in-chief, Grant was 
in command of the Army of the Tennessee, but was unable to 
do much until September, Bragg and Buell being engaged in 
the race into Kentucky and back. He planned, however, the 
movements which resulted in the battle of luka, September 19, 
where he commanded in person ; and in the battles of Corinth, 
October od and 4th, which were fought by General Kosecrans; 
and in the battle of tlie Ilatchie, October 5th, which was under 
his immediate direction. In the autumn he made his head- 
quarters in Memphis, where he soon, by his stringent and de- 
cided orders, changed that state of affairs, which had led the 
rebels to say, that Memphis was more valuable to them in 
Union hands than in those of their own people. 

The popular clamor throughout the country, and particularly 
m the West, was for the opening of the Mississippi. Vicksburg 
on the north, and Port Hudson on the south, blockaded all 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 39 

transit up or clown this great river, so long the free channel of 
western produce and traffic. The efforts which had been made 
to break through these obstructions since the war commenced, 
had all failed, from the inherent strength of the fortilications, 
the difficulty of assailing them effectually in front, and the 
strength of their garrisons. General Grant had turned bis at- 
tention to the solution of this great problem, almost as soon as 
the command of the Department of the Tennessee was assigned 
to him, in October, 1862. He was aware of the formidable char- 
acter of the fortifications of Vicksburg, and that they had been, 
during 1862, strengthened by every method and device known 
to engineering skill. For ten miles and more, the eastern 
shore of the Mississippi, above and below the city, as well as all 
the adjacent heights, Chickasaw Bluffs, Walnut Bluff's, Haines' 
Bluff', and the shores of the Yazoo, were covered with fortifica- 
tions, and the rear of the city also. At many points, these 
stood tier above tier, and were capable of pouring a concen- 
trated fire upon any object in the river, which it seemed as if 
nothing built by human hands could resist. His first plan 
was to distribute his stores and supplies along the Mississijjpi 
Central railroad, and then moving rapidly down that road, as- 
sault and carry Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and march 
thence swiftly upon the rear of Vicksburg, sending General 
W. T. Sherman from Memphis, with a considerable force to 
demonstrate simultaneously on Chickasaw Bluffs, at the noith- 
west of the city. 

This plan, which s.'^emed the most feasible one, was defeated 
by the cowardice and treachery of Colonel Murphy, who, uiih 
a force of 1,000 men, was in command at Holly Springs, Miss- 
issippi, Grant's main depot of supplies, and surrendered wiih- 
out attempting any defence, on the 20th of December, 1862, 
to a rebel force slightly larger than his own. The rebels hastily 



40 MEN OF OUB DAY. 

destroyed the supplies, valued at $4,000,000, and evacuated the 
place. But Grant could not go on with his expedition, and 
unfortunately he was unable to apprise General Sherman, and 
prevent his departure ; and after a succession of disastrous as- 
saults upon the blulis, finding that General Grant had failed to 
come to time, that general was obliged to withdraw with heavy 
losses. But Grant was not the man to give up an enterprise 
on which he had set his heart, in consequence of a single re- 
pulse. Renewing his stock of supplies, he next turned his 
attention to some plan, as yet he hardly knew what, for carry- 
ing the fortress, from the front. He moved his army to Young's 
Point, Louisiana, a short distance above Vicksburg. He soon 
found that there was no hope of reaching the rear of the city 
by a movement from the east bank of the Mississippi above it. 
A line of bills admirably adapted, and as admirably improved 
for defence, stretched from Vicksburg to Haines' Bluff, on the 
Yazoo, twelve miles above the entrance of that stream into the 
Mississippi. The land in front of these hills is a deep marsh, 
neither land nor water. There remained then but two courses, 
either to enter the Yazoo above Haines' Bluff, and coming 
down to the east of that fortified point, attack the city in rear, 
or finding some mode of passing or evading the batteries on 
the Mississippi, land some distance below, and approach it from 
the south. There was also a faint hope that by completing a 
canal, begun the previous summer, across the neck of land 
formed by the bend of the Mississippi, and thus creating a new 
channel for that river, the Union vessels might be able to pass 
below the city, but the tact that the lower end of the canal was 
exposed to the fire of some of the heaviest batteries, made this 
project less feasible, and the flood destroyed iheir works, and 
partially filled the canal with silt and mud. 

The attempts to gain the rear of the city by way of the Yazoo 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 41' 

were equally unsuccessful, both through the Old Yazoo Pass, 
and subsequently by a more circuitous route through Steele's 
Bayou, Black Bayou, Dutch creek, Deer creek, Eolling Fork 
and Sunflower river; the rebels having planted earthworks and 
batteries at such points as to prevent progress by either. 

Turning his attention then to the methods of reaching the 
Mississippi below Vicksburg, two routes were attempted on the 
west side of the river and both failed ; one was by Lake Provi- 
dence and the Tensas river, a tortuous route and only practica- 
ble for vessels of light draft ; the other by way of certain Loui- 
siana bayous, through which in flood time it was possible to 
reach the Tensas, Red, and Mississippi rivers. Before the vessels 
could reach their destination, the water fell, and even the steam- 
ers of lightest draught could not get through. A small quan- 
tity of supplies was forwarded by the Lake Providence route, 
but nothing more. General Grant now determined to march 
his troops by land down the west side of the river as soon as the 
roads should be sufficiently dry. But it was necessary that a 
part of the gunboats and iron clads should be below Yicksburg, 
both in order to ferry the troops across the river and to engage 
the batteries at Grand Gulf, and a considerable amount of sup- 
plies must also be sent down by transports. These must all 
run past the terrible batteries of Vicksburg. 

Admiral Porter undertook this heroic and daring expedition, 
and conducted it successfully, running past the batteries with 
five or six gunboats and sixteen or eighteen transports, in two 
divisions, on diflerent nights. Two of the transports were 
burned, but none of the gunboats were seriously injured. 

The overland march of the troops occupied thirty days, in 
traversing a distance of seventy miles, to Hard Times, a hamlet 
of Louisiana nearly opposite Grand Gulf. The squadron were 
ready and attacked Grand Gulf, but could not silence its bat* 



42 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

teries. That night both the squadron and transport e ran past 
the batteries, and the troops marched ten miles farther, and were 
ferried over to Bruinsburg and marched rapidly from this point 
north-eastward toward Port Gibson. The thirteenth and seven- 
teenth corps encountered a considerable force of the enemy, 
whom they defeated after a sharp battle, and moved on to and 
across Bayou Pierre. The next day it was ascertained that 
Grand Gulf, which had been flanked by this movement, had 
been evacuated, and General Grant repaired thither with a small 
escort, and made arrangements to make it his base of supplies 
for a time. These arrangements occupied nearly a week. By 
his orders, as nearly as possible simultaneously with the landing 
Df the two corps at Bruinsburg, General Sherman had made a 
strong demonstration upon Haines' Bluff and the Yazoo, and 
had thus attracted the attention of the rebels toward that quar- 
ter, where they believed the entire Union army were concen- 
trated, and prevented them from opposing their landing below. 

This being accomplished, Sherman's troops made all speed in 
marching to the rendezvous on the river, where the transports 
were in waiting to take t'nem over to Grand Gulf. 

Before leaving Young's Point, General Grant had also 
ordered an expedition by a competent cavalry force, under the 
command of Colonel, now General Benjamin H. Grierson, to 
start from Lagrange, at the junction of the Mississippi Central 
and Memphis and Charleston railroads, to follow the lines of the 
Mobile and Ohio and Mississippi Central railroads, and destroy 
as much of these, and the Meridian and Jackson railroad, as 
possible, — capturing and destroying also all stores, ammunition, 
locomotives, and railroad cars possible, in their route. This 
expedition was thoroughly successful, and reached Baton Rouge 
on the 1st of May, at the time Grant was fighting the battle of 
Port Gibson. Other raids were ordered about the same time 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 43 

from Middle Tennessee, which aided in breaking up the railroad 
communications and frustrating the plans of the rebels. 

Our space does not allow us to go into details of the subse- 
quent masterly movements by which, while apparently threat- 
ening an immediate attack on Vicksburg from the south, the 
garrison there, under the command of General Pemberton, were 
prevei-ted from forming a junction with General J. E. Johnston's 
troops, then in the vicinity of Jackson, nor of the battle of 
Raymond, the capture of Jackson, and the destruction of tJie 
property and manufactories of the rebel Government there ; the 
rapid march westward, the severe battles of Champion Hill and 
of Black Eiver bridge, and the emineu.ly skilful management 
of the corps of Generals Sherman and McPherson. Sufiice it 
to say, that General Grant interposed his army between the 
forces of Johnston and Pemberton, drove the former, broken 
and routed, northward, and compelled the latter to put himself 
and his defeated army as soon as possible within the defences of 
Vicksburg ; and on the 18th the Union army sat down before 
Vicksburg, having completely invested it on the ^and side and 
opened communication with their squadron and transports by 
way of AValnut Bluffs, above the river. On the 19th of May, 
and again on the 22d, General Grant ordered assaults upon the 
beleaguered city, neither of which were successful, except in 
gaining some ground and expediting the subsequent regular ap- 
proaclies. The army now became satisfied that the stronghold 
could only be captured by a systematic siege, and General Grant 
accordingly took all precautions to make that siege effective, 
and to prevent the rebel General Johnston from approaching 
with sufficient force to raise the siege. Day by day the parallels 
were brought nearer and nearer, and finally came so near that 
the rebels could not use their cannon, while the Union artillery 
from the adjacent hills, and from the squadron, constantly show- 



44 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ered their iron hail upon the devoted city. The inhabitants and 
the rebel army dug oaves in the bluffs, and endeavored to shel- 
ter themselves from the fiery storm, but these were often pen- 
etrated by the shells from the batteries, or blown up in the 
explosion of the forts. At length, on the third of July, General 
Grant was prepared to order an assault, which could not have 
failed of success, when overtures were made for a surrender, and 
the city was delivered into the hands of the Union army on the 
4th of July, 1863. 

It is stated that at the interview between General Grant and 
General Pemberton, after shaking hands, and a short silence, 
General Pemberton said : 

" General Grant, I meet you in order to arrange terms for the 
capitulation of the city of Vicksburg and its garrison. What 
terms do you demand ?" 

" Unconditional surrender,^^ replied General Grant. 

"Unconditional surrender!" said Pemberton. "Never, so 
long as I have a man left me ! I will fight rather." 

" I'hen, sir, you can continue the defence^^^ replied Grant. ''^ My 
army has never been in a better condition for the prosecution of the 
sieged 

During this conversation, General Pemberton was greatly agi- 
tated, trembling with emotion from head to foot, while Grant was 
as calm and imperturbable as a May morning. After a somewhat 
protracted interview, during which General Grant, in considera- 
tion of the courage and tenacity of the garrison, explained the 
terms he was disposed to allow to them on their unconditional 
surrender, the two generals separated, an armistice having 
been declared till morning, when the question of surrender was 
to be finally determined. The same evening General Grant 
transmitted to General Pemberton, in writing, the propositions 
he ha i made during the afternoa- for the disposal of the garri. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON" GRANT 45 

Bon, should they surrender. These terms were very liberal, far 
more so than those usually acceded to a conquered garrison. 

The rebel loss in this campaign had been very great, larger 
than has often been experienced in the campaigns of modern 
times, and utterly without precedent in the previous history of 
this continent. The number of prisoners captured by the Union 
troops, from the landing at Bruinsburg to, and including the 
surrender of Yicksburg, was 34,620, including one lieutenant- 
general and nineteen major and brigadier-generals ; and 11,800 
men were killed, wounded, or deserters. There were also among 
the spoils of the campaign two hundred and eleven field-piecee, 
ninety siege guns, and 45,000 small arms. The Union losses 
had been 943 killed, 7,095 wounded,, and 537 missing, making 
a total of casualties of 8,575, and of the wounded, nearly one 
half returned to duty within a month. 

Having disposed of his prisoners at Vicksburg, General Grant 
dispatched General Sherman with an adequate force to Jackson, 
to defeat and break up Johnston's army, and destroy the rebel 
stores collected there, in both which enterprises he was sue-' 
cessful. 

During the long period of two and a quarter years since he 
had entered the army, General Grant had never sought or re- 
ceived a day's furlough. But after this great victory, and while 
the thanks of the President, the Cabinet, Congress, and the peo- 
ple, were lavished upon him without stint, he sought for a few 
days' rest with his family, and received it. His stay with thera 
was brief, and he returned to his duties, descending the Missis- 
sippi — now, thanks to his skilful generalship, open to the navi- 
gation of all nations, from its mouth to the falls of St. Anthony 
— to New Orleans, to confer with General Banks relative to the 
operations of the autumn. While here, on the 4th of Septem- 



46 MEN OP OUR DAY. 

ber, he was seriously injured by being thrown from his horse 
while reviewing the troops of General Banks' department. 

From these injuries he did not recover sufficiently to take 
the field, till late in October. Meantime, there had been hard 
fighting, as well as weary marches, and severe privations en- 
dured by the Army of the Cumberland. General Eosecrans, 
moving forward in June, had driven General Bragg, not with- 
out considerable fighting, from Tullahoma, and through south- 
ern Tennessee, into and out of Chattanooi^^a, and, throwing a 
small garrison into that town, had marched southward to inter- 
cept Bragg's further retreat, and compel him to fight. Bragg, 
meantime, strongly reinforced from the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, had joined battle with him in the valley of Chickamauga 
creek, where on the 19th and 20th of September, 1862, was 
fought one of the great actions of the war. Though not abso- 
lutely defeated, Eosecrans had found it necessary to fall back to 
Chattanooga, which he held, though closely beleaguered by 
Bragg, who had compelled him to relinquish some of his most 
important communications, and drag his supplies over sixty 
miles of the worst mountain roads in the southwest. This 
measure was but temporary, however, and was about to be reme- 
died, when he was relieved of the command, to which General 
Thomas was assigned. General Sherman, now in the command 
of the Army of the Tennessee, was ordered up to his support, 
and two corps sent from the Army of the Potomac, under Gen- 
erals Hooker and Howard. This magnificent army was placed 
under General Grant's command, as the Military Division of 
the Mississippi. On Grant's arrival at Chattanooga, his first 
care was to open communications, and provide for full supplies 
for his soldiers, who had been on half rations for some time. 
Bragg, at this time, sent Longstreet's corps to Knoxville, to 
drive Burnside from east Tennessee, and unaware of Grant's 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 47 

large reinforcements, he proved true to his name, and on the 
21st of November, 1863, sent this arrogant message to General 
Grant by flag of truce : 

" Humanity would dictate the removal of all non-combatants 
from Chattanooga, as I am about to shell the city." 

General Grant made no reply to the threat at the moment, but 
his answer was speedily returned, and proved so effectual, that 
Bragg gave up all idea of "shelling the city" from that time 
forward. 

Sherman's Army of the Tennessee had been coming into the 
city and its vicinity, since the 15th of November, by roads 
which led to the rear, and hence had not been observed by 
Bragg's lookout ; and on the evening of the 23d of November, 
lay concealed above Chattanooga, on the north bank, and ready 
for the crossing. Then followed that admirably planned combi- 
nation of movements which reflected so much skill on Grant's 
strategic ability. General Thomas, with the Army of the 
Cumberland, marched out with all the order and stateliness of 
a grand review, and while the enemy looked on and wondered, 
seized Orchard Knob, their most advanced position, held and 
fortified it. Hooker, with his eastern troops, marching along 
the western flank of Lookout Mountain, suddenly climbed its 
steep sides, and rising from one elevation to another, drove the 
enemy up and over the crest of the mountain — the batteries 
echoing and reverberating among the mountains till, with the 
valleys below obscured by clouds and smoke, which did not rise 
to his own lofty position, he fought that battle above the clouds 
which has been so greatly celebrated; and Sherman advancing, 
destroyed the railway, and captured, with but slight effort, the 
most advanced post of the enemy at the northeast. Such was 
the work of November 24th ; that of November 25th was more 
serious, but crowned with perfect success. Hooker, descending 



48 MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

from tlie eastern and less precipitous slope of Lookout ^^oun- 
taiu, some distance below Chattanooga, pursued the flying rebels 
up to the crest of Mission Ridge, and drove them from Fort 
Bragg, the southernmost of their fort^ crossing the Eidge. 
Sherman, by persistent pounding and repeated assaults upon 
Fort Buokner, the northernmost of their forts, had succeeded 
in drawing a considerable portion of the garrison of the central 
fort, Fort Breckinridge, to the support of the Fort Buokner 
garrison, and when, at a little past three o'clock p. x., the signal 
guns sounded from Fort "Wood, on Orchard Knob, the picked 
men of the Army of the Cumberland sprang to arms, climbed 
the precipitous sides of Mission Ridge, under a most terrific fire, 
swept through Fort Breckinridge, and drove the foe, pell mell, 
down the iartber slope of the Ridge, and Sherman's men pos- 
sessed themselves quietly of the fort, against which they had 
flung themselves so fiercely all day. No more brilliant action 
occurred dui'ing the war ; and when it was followed by a prompt 
pursuit of the enemy, and by sending Sherman with his wearied, 
but always obedient and victorious troops, to Knoxville, to 
compel Longstreet to raise the siege of that town, and to drive 
him among the mountains of western Yirgiuia in midwinter, 
the admiration of the nation for Grant knew no bounds. The 
President but expressed the popular feeling, when he sent to the 
successful general the following telegraphic dispatch : 

'• Washiniitox, Pec. S, 1S63. 

*' Major-Gexeral Grant : 

" Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and 
Knoxville is now secure, T wish to tender you, and all under 
your coniniaud, my more than thanks — my profoundest grati- 
tude — for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which you 
and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that important 
object. God bless you all !" 

"A. LIXCOLX." 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRAXT. 49 

Oa the 17tli of December, 1863, Congress by joint resolution 
tendered him the national gratitude and provided for the 
preparation of a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 
inscriptions, to be presented to him in token of the national 
sense of his services. The Legislatures of the loyal States vied 
with each other in their resolutions of thanks and in their 
grants of funds, etc., while many private individuals added their 
gifts. The Senate at the beginning of its session had confirmed, 
almost by acclamation, the rank of major-general in the regular 
army which had been bestowed upon him by the President in 
the summer, his commission dating from July 4, 1863. 

The recipient of these numerous honors seemed in no wise 
elated by them ; he was as simple and unpretending in his man- 
ners, as reticent on all political topics, and as averse to any 
thing looking like display, as when he was a farmer at St. Louis, 
or a clerk at Galena. 

There was yet much to be done to bring his army at Chatta- 
nooga into good condition. His communications with his bases 
at Nashville and Louisville must be repaired and strengthened, 
his men better fed, supplies accumulated at Chattanooga and 
Nashville, for the campaigns in the not distant future in Georgia. 
In concert with his tried friend and trusty lieutenant, Sherman, 
ho planned an expedition into the heart of the enemy's territory 
at Meridian, Mississippi, to be met by one from Memphis, down 
the Mobile and Ohio railroad, which, by thoroughly breaking 
their lines of communication, should cripple their movements 
in the future, and during the months of January, while General 
Sherman was completing the details of this enterprise, he 
visited and inspected in person all the posts and stations of his 
widely extended command. The Meridian expedition was but 
a partial success, owing to the failure of the cavalry portion of 



50 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

it to co-operate effectively ; but it seriously embarrasaod the 
rebels in their subsequent operations. 

While it was in progress, Major-General Grant was summoned 
to Washington, where he was called to assume new and still 
higher responsibilities. Congress had resolved to revive the 
grade of lieutenant-general, which had been borne as a full rank 
only by General Washington (General Scott's title being only 
by brevet) ; and a law to that effect having been passed, the 
President at once conferred the rank upon Major-General Grant 
and the Senate confirmed it. The commission bore the date of 
March 2d, 1864, and on the 9th of that month the President 
delivered it to him in person, accompanied by a brief address 
expressive of his own pleasure in doing him such an honor, and 
a word of monition as to the great responsibilities which it 
would devolve upon him. On the 12th of March, the President, 
by official order, invested the lieutenant-general with the com- 
mand of tlie armies of the United States ; at the same time ap- 
pointing, at Lieutenant-General Grant's instance, Major-General 
W. T. Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the 
Mississippi ; General McPherson, commander of the Army of the 
Tennessee, and General Halleck, hitherto general in chief, chief 
of staff of the army, to reside in Washington. 

The subsequent seven or eight weeks were busy ones for 
General Grant. The various commands of the army were to be. 
visited, a simultaneous campaign for the two armies arranged 
with General Sherman, supplies collected and troops accumula- 
ted to a far greater extent than at any previous time ; the army 
corps to be strengthened and some of them reorganized, and all 
preparations made for a campaign which should end only with 
the war. The armies of the eastern division, which were to 
operate against the rebel General Lee, he proposed to command 
n person; those of the west were to be directed by Major 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 51 

General Sherman, His own especial command, as reorganized 
under his supervision, consisted of; first^ the army of the Poto- 
mac, numbering in all 130,000 men, though at the commence- 
ment of the campaign, a part were not yet present ; this was 
commanded by General George G. Meade, an able and experi- 
enced officer, and its corps commanders were Hancock, Warren, 
Sedgwick, and Burnside. It confronted Lee's army from 
the north side of the Eapidan. Second, the army of the James, 
consisting of about 30,000 troops, under the command of Major- 
General Butler, with General Gillmore as a subordinate ; this 
was in a position to strike either at Richmond or Petersburg. 
Third, the army of the Shenandoah, under the command of 
Major-General Franz Sigel, then about 17,000 strong, but subse- 
quently increased by the addition of the nineteenth army corps, 
from the Department of the Gulf. Besides these there was a strong 
cavalry force, under the command of the young but efficient 
general, Philip H. Sheridan. The forward movement was 
made on the 4th of May, 1864, and resulted in the bloody but 
indecisive battles of the "Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864, a for- 
ward movement by the left flank to Spottsylvania, and a series 
of battles there. May 8-21, hardly more decisive, and not less 
bloody than the preceding; another flank movement to and 
across the North Anna, and two days of hard fighting, May 
21-25 ; a recrossing of the North Anna, a flanking of the enemy 
and crossing of the Pamunkey, and the battle of Tolopotomoy, 
May 28 and 29, and of Bethesda church. May SO. Another at- 
tempt to surprise the enemy by a flank movement, brought the 
two armies face to face at Cold Harbor, one of the battle grounds 
of 1862, but this time with the positions of the two armies re- 
versed. 

Finding himself unable to gain the flank of Lee's army — that 
general moving on interior and shorter lines, and though with 



52 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

an inferior force, being fully his equal in military strategy- 
Lieutenant -General Grant now took the resolution of throwing 
the Army of the Potom.ac south of the James, and assailing 
Petersburg and Richmond from that direction. His losses in 
this month of battles had been frightful, nearly 60,000 men 
being hois du combat, either among the slain, wounded, or pris- 
oners. He had inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, but they 
were not equal to his own, as their numbers were materially 
less ; but, with that pertinacity and resolution which is so 
striking an element of his character, he would not relax his 
efforts in the least, and was determined to pound away upon his 
foes till he had ground them to powder. Crossing the James 
successfully, he commenced a series of assaults on Petersburg, 
but without any considerable success. The construction of 
siege lines around the city, to the east and south ; the mining 
of one of its forts ; demonstrations alternately toward the Wel- 
don and the Southside railroads, followed ; but with not much 
better result. His cavalry, under Sheridan, Wilson, and 
Kautz, were kept actively employed in raids upon the enemy's 
lines of communication. The army of the Shenandoah had 
made lamentable failures under Sigel and Hunter, and their 
adversary. Early, had descended into Maryland, threatened 
Baltimore and Washington, and only been driven from the 
vicinity of the capital, by the hurried advance of troops from 
the Army of the Potomac and the Department of the Gulf. 
The Government, always in terror of attacks upon the capital, 
clamored loudly for protection ; but while General Grant would 
not farther weaken his force around Petersburg, he sent a man to 
command the Department of the Shenandoah, who was himself 
worth an army corps. General Sheridan, in a succession of 
well-planned and hard-fought battles, disposed of General Early, 
and subsequently raided through the whole Shenandoah and 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 53 

Luray valleys, laying them desolate, for the aid, shelter and 
support they had given to the bands of guerrillas. The autumn 
and early winter was consumed in attempts to cut the lines of 
communication from the west and southwest of Petersburg and 
Richmond, by which the rebel armies were supplied. The 
Virginia and Tennessee road was destroyed by Gillem and 
Stoneman; the Manassas and Lynchburg roads, the James River 
canal and the slackwater navigation broken up, and the sup- 
plies in the warehouses destroyed by Sheridan ; and at each 
effort along Hatcher's Run some ground was gained, and a 
nearer approach made to the only artery of communication 
which remained, the Southside railroad. This was accom- 
plished at a heavy cost of life, but there was an advance which 
betokened the speedy coming of the end. 

Meantime, Admiral Farragut had, in the grandest of naval 
battles, defeated the squadron and captured the forts which 
defended Mobile Bay ; Sherman had, after a campaign of great se- 
verity, captured Atlanta, and partially destroyed it — had moved 
onward, with his vast columns, to the sea — had captured Savan- 
nah — and, turning northward, had swept, as with the besom of 
destruction, South Carolina, compelling the surrender of Charles- 
ton, and the other principal towns of South and North Caro- 
lina ; the forts which had protected the harbor of Wilmington, 
North Carolina, had succumbed, on a second attack, to the 
prowess of A'lmiral Porter and General Terry — and Wilming- 
ton itself had fallen before Terry and Schofield ; General 
Thomas had driven Ilood out of Tennessee, with such terrible 
slaughter that he could not assemble another army. 

All things portended the speedy collapse of this formidable 
rebellion. Grunt now moved forward; and after some hard 
fighting, Sheridan, under his direction, carried the strong po- 
sition of P'ivc Forks, and drove those of the enemy who were 



54 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

not slain or captured, westward, where they could not aid in 
continuiiig the defence of Lee's already weakened lines. April 
2d, 1805, the line of the Southside railroad was thoroughly 
broken ; April 3d, the cities of Petersburg and Eichmond were 
evacuated and surrendered. The flying rebel army, bereft of 
supplies, hungry and despairing, were pursued unremittingly; 
and on the 9th of April, General Lee surrendered to General 
Grant the remnant of the Army of Virginia. Then came the 
entrance into Richmond ; the President's visit there ; and the 
sad scene of the assassination of the President, whose fate 
General Grant only escaped by the providence of God, which 
called him suddenly to Philadelphia that night. The news of 
the proposed terms of capitulation offered to Johnston by 
General Sherman, coming just at this juncture, roused, on the 
part of the Government, such strong disapproval, that General 
Grant immediately went to Raleigh, and by wise and adroit 
management saved his friend from disgrace, and the country 
.'rom any evils which might have resulted from Sherman's 
terms. 

. The speedy end of the war ensued, and General Grant's 
duties thenceforward were rather administrative than military. 
He made a tour tlirough the Southern States in 1865, and sub- 
seqently flying visits to the northern cities. The gratitude of 
the people for his eminent services followed him. A residence 
was presented to him at Galena, another in Philadelphia, and 
another still in Washington. The merchants of New York 
raised a hundred thousand dollars as an indication of their sense 
of his great services to the country. On the 25th of July, 1866, 
Congress created the grade of full general, hitherto unknown to 
our country, and stipulating that it should lapse after his death 
or resignation of it, conferred it upon him. In the summer of 

1866, by express command of the President, General Grant ac« 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 55 

companied him in his western tour ; but he sought in vain to 
commit hira to any approval of his cause and policy. Subse- 
quently, in August. 1867, when Mr. Johnson's long and ill-dis- 
guised hatred of the Secretary of War broke out into hostility, 
and he demanded Mr. Stanton's resignation, on the refusal of 
that officer to resign, Mr. Johnson suspended him from office 
and appointed General Grant Secretary ad interim. The general 
accepted the position, managed the office wisely and well, and 
when the Senate decided that Mr. Stanton's removal was un- 
justifiable, surrendered it at once to the Secretary. This act 
excited Mr. Johnson's anger, and he sought, in a series of letters, 
but with his usual ill-success, to fasten upon the general charges 
of insincerity, inveracity, and treachery. 

Having returned to the duties of his office as the Commanding 
General of the Armies of the United States, General Grant took 
no farther part in politics, and neither by word nor act showed 
any disposition to take sides in the impeachment trial of the 
President (Johnson) which followed. At the National Conven- 
tion of the Republican party, held in Chicago, Mav 20th — 22d, 
1868, General Grant was nominated for the Presidency, and Hon. 
Schuyler Colfax for the Vice-Presidency. His nomination was 
almost by acclamation. As he had not previously been in any 
way active as a politician, and little was known definitely of his 
political views, we give for purposes of reference the platform 
adopted by the convention which nominated him, and his letter 
of acceptance.* 

* REPUBIJCAN PLATFORM. 

The National Bepuhlican Party of the United States, anfemhled in National 
Convention in the City of Chicago, on the 2lt>t day of May, 18ti8, 7nake 
the following Declaration of Principles. 

I. We conirratuliite tlie counlry on the assured success of the Recon- 
struction policy of (!ong:ress, as evinced by the adoption, in the inuj(,rily 
of the States lately in rebellion, of Constitutions securing Equal Civil and 



6C MEN OF OUR DAY. 

The Presidential campaign was less exciting than usual, and 
it was a foregone conclusion, long before the day of election, 
that Grant and Colfax would be elected. The elections took 
place November 3d, 1868, and the Republican candidates re- 
ceived 214 electoral votes, against 80 given to Messrs. Seymour 
and Blair, thus having a clear majority of IS-i electoral votes. 
On the popular vote General Grant's majorit}^ though compara- 
tively less, was still very decided. The whole number of votes 

Political Rights to all, and it is the duty of tlie Government to sustain 
those institutions and to prevent the people of such States from being 
remitted to a state of anarchy. 

II. 'I'he guaranty by Congress of Equal Suffrage to all loyal men at the 
Soi;th was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, 
and of justice, and must be maintained ; while tlie question of Suffrage in 
all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of tliose States. 

III. We denounce all forms of Repudiation as a national crime; and the 
national lionor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the 
uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according 
to the letter but the spirit of the laws under wliich it was contracted. 

IV. It is due to the Labor of the Nation that taxation should be equal- 
ized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 

V. 'Die National Debt, contracted, as it has been, for the preservation of 
the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period for 
redemption ; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of interest 
thereon, whenever it can be honestly done. 

VI. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so im- 
prove our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us )noney at lower rates 
of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay so long as repudia- 
tion, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. 

VII. The Government of the United States should be administered with 
the strictest economy ; and the corruptions which have been so sliamefully 
nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform. 

VIH. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew John- 
son, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the 
cause he was pledged to support ; who lias usurped Ingh legislative and 
judicial functions ; who has refused to execute tlie laws ; who has used his 
high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws ; who has 
employed his executive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, 
liberty and life of the citizen; who has abused the pardoning power; who 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 57 

polled was 5,716,788, of which General Grant received 3,013,188, 
a clear majority of 309,588, or 5'-12 per cent. He was inaugu- 
rated March 4:th, 1869. The new President having previously 
resigned his commission as General of the United States Army, 
Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman was on his nomina- 
tion promoted to be General ; and Major-General Philip H. 
Sheridan promoted to the vacant Lieutenant-Generalship. Presi- 
dent Grant sent the names of his new cabinet to the Senate on 



has denounced the National Legislature as unconstitutional ; who has per- 
sistently and corruptly resisted, by every means in his power, every pro- 
per attempt at the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion : who has 
perverted the public patronag-e into an engine of wholesale corruption ; and 
who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and pro- 
perly pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. 

IX. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers that, 
because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every 
hazard by the United States, as a relic of feudal times, not authorized by 
the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. 
Naturalized citizens are entitled to protection in all tlieir rights of citizen- 
ship, as though they were native-born ; and no citizen of the United States, 
native or naturalized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any 
foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country ; and if so 
arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in 
his behalf. 

X. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were 
none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen 
who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperiled their 
lives in the service of the country ; the bounties and pensions provided by 
the laws for these brave defenders of the nation, are obligations never to 
be forgotten ; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of 
the people — a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. 

XI. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the 
wealth, development and resources and increase of power to this republic, 
the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and encour- 
aged by a liberal and just policy. 

XII. This Convention declares itself in sympathy with all oppressed 
peoples struggling for their rights. 

Unanimously added, on motion of Gen. Schurz : 

Resolned. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and for- 
bearance with which men who have served in the rebellion, but who now 



58 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the 5th of March. They were as follows : Secretary of State, 
E. B. Washburue of Illinois ; Secretary of the Treasury, A. T. 
Stewart of New York ; Secretary of War, John M. Schofield of 
New York; Secretary of the Navy, Adolphe E. Borie of Penn- 
sylvania ; Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox of Ohio ; 
Postmaster-General, John A.J. Creswell of Maryland ; Attorney- 
General, E. Rockwood Hoar of Massachusetts, 

frankly and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the coun- 
try and reconstructing the Southern State governments upon tlie basis of 
Impartial Justice and Kqual Rights, are received back into the communion 
of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and 
restrictions imposed upon the late Rebels in the same measure as their 
spirit of loyalty will direct, and as may be consistent with the safety of the 
loyal people. 

Resolved, That we recognize the great principles laid down in the im- 
mortal Declaration of Independence, as the true foundation of democratic 
government ; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these 
principles a living reality on every inch of American soil. 

In accepting the nomination. General Grant wrote the following letter: 
To General Joseph R. Hawley, President National Union Republican Con- 
vention : 

In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union Republican 
Convention of the 21st of May, inst., it seems proper that some statement 
of views beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination should be expres- 
sed. The proceedings of the Convention were marked with wisdom, mode- 
ration and patriotism, and I believe express the feelings of the great mass 
of those who sustained the country through its recent trials. I indorse 
the resolutions. If elected to the office of President of the United States, 
it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with econo- 
my, and with the view of giving peace, quiet and protection everywhere. 
In times like the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, 
to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wrong, through an admin- 
istration of four years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly 
arising ; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and 
a purely administrative officer should always be left free to execute the will 
of the people. I always have respected that will, and alwaj's shall. Peace 
and universal prosperity — its sequence — with economy of administration, 
will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the National 
debt. Let us have peace. 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 

Washinqton, D. C, Mai/ 29, 1868. U. S. Grant. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 59 

Here began President Grant's administration, which was not 
without its troubles. Mr. Stewart, being an importer, was found 
to be constitutionally ineligible to the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury. The law which made him ineligible was one 
enacted many years since, and a strong effort was made to 
have it repealed. But this proved ineffectual, and on the llth 
of March the name of George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts 
was substituted for that of Mr. Stewart. 

Mr. Washburne's appointment was purely honorary, and de- 
signed to be temporary, so that an early successor was expected. 
Mr. Washburne's declining health precipitated a change, and 
the name of Hamilton Fish was sent in as his successor. On 
the same date the name of John A. Eawlins, late Grant's chief 
of staflt; was submitted as Secretary of War. 

Three months later Mr. Borie, who found the duties of the 
Navy Department uncongenial, sent in his resignation, and on 
June 25th George M. Eobeson of New Jersey was nominated as 
his successor. These changes did not place the Administration 
in good working order. Others took place during tlie year. 
Secretary Eawlins died on September 6th, and after an ad 
interim administration of his office by General Sherman, Gene- 
ral Wm. W. Belknap of Iowa was appointed, November 1st, 
1869. It was not until the succeeding year that the maciiinery 
of the Administration was fully adjusted and a definite policy 
began to be developed. 

Several of the political leaders of the Eepublican party felt 
aggrieved that the President should have failed to recognize 
their claims to places in his Cabinet, and a marked ci)ulne.ss en- 
sued. That he should have distrusted such men as advisers was 
quite natural. He had not been trained in their school. That 
he should have a strong preference for those who had grown up 
about him both in the army and private life, was quite as natural. 



60 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Of the former, he knew not whom to trust ; of the latter, he 
knew precisely who were in accord with him. He deemed 
confidence an essential to constitutional advisement, just as it 
was a primary consideration in the army. That he was inju- 
dicious in some of these appointments, is possible ; and he him- 
self was subsequently satisfied that it would have been better to 
have selected those more familiar with their duties. 

The charges of nepotism and favoritism which sprung from 
these two causes, the President's preference for those whom he 
knew best, and his neglect of the politicians, were greatly exag- 
gerated and reiterated with undeserved bitterness by those who 
" had nursed their wrath to keep it warm." That he had erred 
in a few of these appointments even he himself now admits, but 
he has done, and is doing what he can to obviate these blunders 
of his inexperience. That he was not induced by his regard for 
friends or relatives to put as many bad men in ofl&ce as any of 
his predecessors, is, we believe, susceptible of proof; and when 
he ascertained that he had been deceived, he took measures for 
the removal of the offender, however warm may have been his 
friendship for him. His experience and observation have 
taught him wisdom. He understands the prominent leaders of 
political affairs much better than he did in 1868-9, and he has 
also learned that a man may be proof against temptation in a 
humble position, who will fall before it in a higher one. The 
wisdom thus acquired is one of his best claims to future confi- 
dence. 

We have never yet seen a charge made against the President 
that was coupled with a doubt of his personal integrity, or that 
discounted his patriotism. Nor have his administrative acts 
often betrayed a forgetfulness of that announcement in his inau- 
gural address, so welcome to all who heard it: -'I shall have no 
policy contrary to the wishes of the American people." 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 61 

Considering the military cast of his mind, it was scarcely ex- 
pected that he could, without considerable administrative school- 
ing, grasp and successfully handle all the great measures of 
State. But his instincts were known to be right. The country 
needed a guarantee of safety and rest, rather than brilliancy and 
unrest. We were to garner fruits, and not break up ground for 
new crops. After the excitement of war a breathing time was 
required. The nation felt that confidence could be reposed in 
Grant, and it has not been disappointed. 

Like other Presidents he has not been free from faults, but 
these he has quickly corrected. Probably the most noticeable 
of these was the policy of acquiring a foothold for our com- 
merce in the Caribbean Sea, a policy as old as the country itself. 
The people forbade, and he hearkened promptly, and gracefully 
abandoned the scheme. 

It has been a continual desire on his part to give to his 
administration the honor of a settlement of that vexatious case 
known popularly as the " Alabama Claims." At the outset he 
was surrounded by many difficulties, not the least of which was 
the personal enmity, amounting to estrangement, which existed 
between Mr. Sumner, then Chairman of the Committee of For- 
eign Affairs, and Secretary Fish. Without harmony between 
these two officials no definite results could be reached. One or 
the other must be disposed of. Which ? became a momentous 
question. The Senate came to the President's relief, and Mr. 
Cameron was cho.sen Mr. Sumner's successor at the head of that 
important committee. Many deemed this action unwise. Mr. 
Sumner's personal qualifications for the position were, probably, 
superior to those of any (>ther Senator, but the necessity for 
harmony between the Committee and the Secretary must override 
all other considerations. This treaty, if carried out in good faith, 
will be of great importance, not only for the benefits which will 



62 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

accrue to the nations concerned in it, but also for the influence it 
will exert upon all nations, as substituting the theory of amica- 
ble settlement of national differences for the arbitrament of arms 
and brute force. 

Another success of the administration has been the constant 
and rapid reduction of the national debt. The people have been 
released from more than $330,000,000 of this burden since 
March 4th, 1869, and a consequent annual saving of interest for 
the future to the extent of more than $20,000,000. The work of 
reconstruction has been well nigh completed. Every Congres- 
sional district in the United States is now represented at Wash- 
ington. Severe laws have been administered cautiously, yet 
with a firmness which has secured harmony in sections where 
discord once prevailed. The taxes have been greatly reduced, 
the Congress just adjourned having eft'ected a reduction amount- 
ing to over $51,000,000 annually. Economy has been enforced 
in every department of revenue, and defaulters have been fer- 
reted out and brought to justice. The army and navy estab- 
lishments have been reduced to a peace footing. A new and 
humane policy of dealing with the Indian tribes has been at- 
tempted, which secures the sanction of all philanthropists, and 
of the respective religious denominations, and bids fair to be far 
more successful than the old and corrupt method of force and 
chicanery. 

But little has been accomplished in the way of civil service 
reform, for the reason that Congressmen are disinclined to give 
up their customary patronage ; but the President has often ex- 
pressed himself in favor of some method of appointment to 
office on the basis of such reform, and his advice has been so far 
regarded in many of the departments as to admit of competitive 
examinations and selection of the most worthy. His efforts in 
this direction are creditable to him, and we may well hope that 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 63 

they will be continued with renewed zeal in the future, and that 
he may succeed in triumphing over the selfish opposition which 
the measure has heretofore encountered. The amnesty bill, and 
also the civil rights bill, failed against his wishes, though these 
measures, we have every reason to believe, are only postponed. 

Altogether his administration has been fairly successful, 
and except with those whose anticipations were too exalted, 
such as was expected. The farmers, the mechanics, the manu- 
facturers, the capitalists, all who are interested in the stability 
of public and industrial affairs, in the maintenance of our institu- 
tions, have had no occasion to repent of their choice. 

The country has prospered. Our financial condition at home 
and abroad was never better. The Treasurer has been able to 
negotiate our bonds abroad without discount, and at five per 
cent, interest. We have had peace. In view of all this posi- 
tive good, of President Grant's honesty, and sympathy with 
the masses, we may overlook the charges of favoritism, his dis- 
trust of politicians, who naturally hate where they cannot rule, 
and hisalleo^ed shortcominsrs. 

The charge most desperately pressed against him, though with 
but slight attempt at proof, is that he has made vigorous efforts 
for his own reelection. It is perhaps desirable that there should 
be some change in the national constitution, which, while ex- 
tending the Presidential term to six or possibly eight years, 
should prohibit a re-election at least till one term had intervened. 
This is as desirable for the incumbent of the Presidential office 
as for the people ; for it would at once obviate the charge often 
unjustly made that the President was intriguing for his own re- 
election. As the constitution now stands it is too much to ask 
from human nature, that a President who is conscious of having 
served his country faithfully, and with fair success, should not 
desire a re-election ; nor is this desire in itself reprehensible, un- 



64 me:n of our day. 

less accompanied, as it too often has the reputation of being, by 
intrigue for the accomplishment of its object. That President 
Grant desired a re-election was but natural ; but that he has 
shaped his policy and distribution of offices to effect it, or at- 
tempted to do so by any corrupt means, is too foreign to his 
nature to be believed for a moment. That a great part of the 
Republican part}"- desire his re-election is undoubtedly true, for 
though conventions may be packed, and their unanimity may 
be effected by the skilful management of political leaders, there 
is abundance of other evidence of that desire, wholly irrespec- 
tive of these, a desire based upon a conviction that the pros- 
perity of the country depends upon his re-election. This desire, 
too, is wholly irrespective of any effort on his part, or any 
alleged manipulations of his for the purpose of procuring it. If 
he is re-elected, it will be as truly as in the case of Lincoln in 
186-i, because the people have willed it, and not because he has 
set any machinery to work to accomplish that purpose. 

In person President Grant is somewhat below the average 
height, with a tendency to corpulency ; of great powers of endu- 
rance, and of uniformly good health. He is temperate, quiet, 
likes simple ways and simple food ; abhors ostentation, can con- 
verse clearly, though not fluently, is no speech maker, preferring 
rather to listen. He is a great smoker, enjoys a game of bil- 
liards, and is fond of choice horses. As a friend he is firm, as 
an enemy he is not vindictive. Few men manifest less envy 
or jealousy. He bears complaint and even censure with resig- 
nation, and regards the promotion and advancement of those 
whom he deems worthy as paramount to all personal considera- 
tions. No man is quicker to correct abuses when he sees th&m, 
and though slow to believe an accusation against one whom he 
has trusted, he acts decidedly when convinced. In the ordi- 
nary acceptation of that term, he is not a man of genius. Blun- 
ders he has made, but he rarely repeats them. In one word, he 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GBANT. 65 

possesses a clear, well-balanced mind, every faculty of which 
is thoroughly practical, and such a combination is worth much 
more than genius. 

At the National Eepublican Convention, held at Philadelphia, 
June 5th and 6th, 1872, President Grant was renominated for 
the Presidency, receiving the unanimous votes of all the State 
delegations present. At the same convention, Henry Wilson, 
of Massachusetts, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency, re- 
ceiving on the first ballot 384:J votes to 314| for Mr. Colfax. 
The following platform was unanimously adopted : 

THE PLATFORM. 

The Republican party of the United States, assembled in National Conven- 
tion in the City of Philadelphia, on the ^Uh and 6th days of June, 1872, 
again declares its faith, appeals to its history, and announces its position 
upon the questions before the country : 

I. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand courage 
the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emanci- 
pated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and. 
established universal suffrage. Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it 
criminally punished no man for political offences, and warmly welcomed all 
who proved their loyalty by obeying the laws and dealing justly with their 
neighbors. It has steadily decreased, with a firm hand, the resultant dis- 
orders of a great war, and initiated a wise policy toward the Indians. 'J'ho 
Pacific Railroad and similar vast enterprises have been generally aided and 
successfully conducted ; the public lands freely given to actual settlers; 
immigration protected and encouraged, and a full acknowledgment of the 
naturalized citizens' rights secured from Eiiropean powers. A uniform 
national currency has been provided; repudiation frowned down; the 
national credit sustained under most extraordinary burdens, and new bond* 
negotiated at lower rates ; the revenues have been carefully collected and 
honestly applied. Despite the annual large reductions of rates of taxation, 
the public debt has been reduced during General Grant's presidency at the 
rate of $100,000,000 a year. A great financial crisis has been avoided, and 
peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficul- 
ties have been peacefully and honorably compromised, and the honor and 
the power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. This 
glorious record of the past is the party's best pledge for the future. We 
believe the people will not intrust the Government to any party or combi- 
nation of men composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of 
this beneficial lorogress. 
5 



6Q MEN OF OUR DAY. 

II. Complete liberty and exact equality in tVie enjoyment of all civil, 
political and public rights should be established and effectually maintained 
throughout the Union, by efficient and appropriate State and Federal legis- 
lation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit of any dis- 
crimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previ- 
ous condition of servitude. 

III. 'i"he recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cor- 
dially sustained, because they are right, not merely tolerated because they 
are law. and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate 
legislation, the enforcement of which can be safely trusted only to the 
party that secured those amendments. 

IV. The National Government should seek to maintain an honorable 
peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sympathiz- 
ing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. 

V. Any system of the Civil Service under which the subordinate posi- 
tions of the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal, is 
fatally demoralizing ; and we, therefore, favor a reform of the system by 
laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage, and make honesty, effi- 
ciency and fidelity the essential qualifications for public position, without 
practically creating a life-tenure of office. 

VI. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to corpora- 
tions and monnpolies, and demand that the national domain be set apart 
for free homes for the people. 

VII. The annual revenues, after paying the current debts, should furnish 
a moderate balance for the reduction of the principal, and the revenue, 
except so much as may be derived from a tax on tobacco and liquors, be 
raised by duties upon importations, the duties of which should be so ad- 
justed as to aid in securing remunerative wages to labor, and promote the 
industries, growth, and prosperity of the whole coimtry. 

VIII. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor 
saved the Union ; their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the 
widows and orphans of those who died for their country are entitled to the 
care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legisla- 
tion as will extend the bounty of the Government to all our soldiers and 
sailors who were honorably discharged, and who in the line of duty became 
disabled, without regard to the length of service or the cause of such dis- 
charge. 

IX. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers concern- 
ing allegiance — " Once a subject always a subject " — having at last through 
the effort of the Republican party, been abandoned, and the American idea 
of the individual's right to transfer his allegiance having been accepted by 
European nations, it is the duty of our Government to guard with jealous 
care the rights of adopted citizens against the assumptions of unauthorized 
claims by their former Governments ; and we urge the continual and care- 
ful encouragement and protection of voluntary immigration. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 67 

X. The Franking Privilege ouglit to be abolished, and the way prepared 
for a speedy reduction in the rate of postage. 

XI. Among the questions which press for attention is that which concerns 
the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican party recognize the 
duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protection, and the amplest field 
for capital, and for labor the creator of capital, the largest opportunities and 
a just share of the mutual profitsof these two great servants of civilization. 

XII. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled an 
imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent and trea- 
sonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, and for the pro- 
tection of the ballot-box, and therefore they are entitled to the thanks of 
the nation. 

XIII. We denounce repudiation of the public debt in any form or dis- 
guise as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction of the 
principal of the debt and of the rates of interest upon the balance, and 
confidently expect that our excellent national currency will be perfected 
by a speedy resumption of specie payments. 

XIV. 'I'he Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal 
women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom. Their 
admission to wider fields of usefulness is received with satisfaction, and 
the honest demands of any class of citizens for additional rights should be 
treated with respectful consideration. 

XV. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending amnesty 
to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace and frater- 
nal feeling throughout the land. 

XVI. The Republican party propose to respect the rights reserved by 
the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to 
the State and to the Federal Government. It disapproves of the resort to 
unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils by interference 
with rights not surrendered by the people to either the State or National 
(jrovernment. 

XVII. It is the duty of the General Government to adopt such mea- 
sures as will tend to encourage American commerce and ship-building. 

XVIII. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose, the 
sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integrity, and the 
illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him to the heart 
of the American people, and with him at our head we start to-day upon a 
new march to victory. 

The President of the Convention, Judge' Settle, of North 

Carolina, addressed to President Grant a letter apprising him of 

his nomination, in the following terms: 

Washington, June 10th, 1872. 
To the President. — Sir: In pursuance of our instructions, we, the un- 
dersigned. President and Vice-Presidents of the National Republican Con- 



68 MEN^ OF OUR DAY. 

vention, held in Philadelpliia on tlie 5th and 6th instant, have the honor 
to inform you of your nomination for re-election to the office of President 
of the United States. As it is impossible to give an adequate idea of the 
enthusiasm which prevailed, or the unanimity which hailed you as the 
choice of the people, we can only add that you received the entire vote of 
every State and Territory. 

Regarding your re-election as necessary to the peace and continued 
prosperity of the coiuitry, we ask your acceptance of the nomination. 

Signed by Thomas Sktti.k, President of the National Republican Con 
vention, and the Vice-Presidents. 

President Grant replied as follows, the same evening : 

ExKOUTivE Mansion, ) 

Washington, D. C. June 10th, 1872. j 
The Hon. Thomas Settle, President National Republican Convention^ 
Paul Strabach, Elisha Baxter, C. A. Sarg^;ant, and others, Vice- 
Presidents. 

Gkntlemkn : Your letter of this date, advising me of the action of the 
Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 5th and 6th of this 
month, and of my unanimous nomination for the Presidency by it, has 
been received. 

I accept the nomination, and through you return my heartfelt thanks to 
your constituents for this mark of their Confidence and support. If elected 
in November, and protected by a kind Providence in health and strength 
to perform the duties of the high trust conferred, I promise tlie same zeal 
and devotion to the good of the whole people for the future of my official 
life as shown in the past. Past experience may guide me in avoiding mis- 
takes inevitable with novices in all professions and in all occupations. 

When relieved from the responsibilities of my present trust, by the elec- 
tion of a successor, whether it be at the end of this term or next, I hope 
to leave to him, as Executive, a country- at peace within its own borders, 
at peace with outside nations, with a credit at home and abroad, and with- 
out embarrassing questions to threaten its future prosperity. 

With the expression of a desire to see a speedy healing of all bitterness 
of feeling between sections, parties, or races of citizens, and the time when 
the title of citizen carries with it all the protection and privileges to the 
humblest that it does to the most exalted, I subscribe myself. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U. S. GRANT. 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 

GENERAL OF THE ARMY OF THE U. S. 




lILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEEMAN, son of Oon. 
Charles R. Sherman, for some years a judge of tlje 
Supreme Court of Ohio, and a brother of Hon, 
John Sherman, the well known United States Sena 
tor from that State, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of 
February, 1820. His early education was obtained in the 
schools of his native town, but after his father's death, which 
occurred when he was nine years of age, he became a member 
of the family of Hon. Thomas Ewing, where heenjoyed much 
wider advantages; and, at the age of sixteen, entered the United 
States Military Academy at West Point, Graduating from that 
institution, June oOth, 1840, with the sixth rank of his class, 
he was immediately appointed to a second lieutenancy in the 
Third Artillery, and served through the next year in Florida, 
achieving some distinction by the masterly manner in which he 
foiled certain maneuvers of the wily Indian chief " Billy Bow- 
legs." In November, 1841, Sherman was made a first lieuten- 
ant, and, sh'jrtly after, was ordered to Fort Moultrie, Charleston 
harbor, where he remained several years, forming intimaciea 
with eminent citizens of South Carolina, which it required all 
his jSrmness and patriotism in after years to abandon. In 18-iH 
he was transferred to California and made assistant adjutant 
general, performing his duties with such marked ability, thai 

09 



70 MEX OF OUR DAT. 

Congress, in 1851, made him captain, by hrevet^ dating from 
May oOtli, 1848, "for meritorious services in California, during 
the war with Mexico." In September, 1850, he was appointed 
Commissary of Subsistence, with rank of captain, and assigned 
to the staff of the commander of the Department of the West, 
with headquarters at St. Louis. During the same year he mar- 
ried the daughter of iiis old friend, Hon. Thomas Ewing, and 
was soon after stationed at New Orleans, where he became well 
acquainted with the leading men of Louisiana. In September, 
1853, he resigned his commission in the army, and was, for 
four years ensuing, the manager of the banking house of Lucas, 
Turner & Co., of San Francisco, California. In 1857, his ser- 
vices were solicited and secured, by some of his old Louisiana 
friends, as the President and Superintendent of a State Military 
Academy, which they were then establishing, and he assumed 
his position early in 1858. The objects and inducements 
alleged for the creation of such an institution were, of them- 
selves, reasonable and plausible ; and it was not until after the 
commencement of the Presidential campaign of 1860, that he 
became aware of the disloyal sentiments existing among the 
majority of the leading men of the State, or of the real and 
treasonable purposes which had influenced them in founding 
the academy over which he presided. Simultaneously with the 
unavoidable unmasking of their plans, these men now strove, 
by every persuasive art, to induce him to join with them in 
their revolutionary projects. But the solicitations of friendship, 
the proffer of gold, and the tender of high of&cial position, failed 
to shake, even for a moment, the sterling loyalty of the soldier. 
Amazed at the revelation, and convinced that civil war waa 
inevitable, he promptly sent to the Governor of the State the 
following letter of resignation : — 



WTLLTAM TECUMREH SHERMAN". 71 

JAN0ART 18, 1861. 

Gov. Thomas 0. Moore, Baton Rouge, La. 

Sir: — As I occupy a (/was /'-military position ander this State, 
I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position 
when Louisiana was a Suite in the Union, and when the motto 
of the seminary was ins ;ried in marble over the main door, 
^^ By tlie ilbt'raliLij of the (rewral Government of the Uiv'IcjI SUitea. 
The Union^ Esio Per/irt?(a."' Kecent events foreshadow a great 
change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana with- 
draws from the Federal Union, / prefer to maintain my alle- 
giance to the Old Constitution as long as a fragment uf it sur- 
vives, and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of 
the word. Li that event, I beg you will send or appoint some 
authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of 
war hero belonging to the State, or direct me what dispusiiion 
should be made of them. And I'urthermore, as President of the 
Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to 
relieve me as Supei'intendent, the moment the State determines 
to secede-; for, on no earthly account will I do any act or think 
any thought, hostile to, or in defiance of, the old Government of 
the United States. 

With great respect, &;c., 
(Signed) W. T. Sherman-. 

His resignation was accepted with regret, by those whc 
knew his worth as a man and his value as a soldier, and an in- 
structor of soldiers; and, in February, he removed with his 
family to St. Louis. Shortly bef )re the attack on Fort Sumter 
be visited Washington, and, conversant as he was with the 
intentions and plans of the Southern leaders — he was am.i^^ed 
at the apathy and incredulity of the Government, who, as he 
Biiid, "were sleeping on a volcano, which would surely burst 
upon them unprepared." Urging U})on government ofru-iala 
the imminenry of the impending danger and the fearful lack of 
prepan^tion to meet it, he also proffered his services as a sol- 
dier who had been educated at the country's expense and 



72 MEN OF OUB DAY. 

who owed every thing to her care and institutions. But the 
threatened storm was generally regarded, by those in authority, 
as a mutter which would " blow over" in sixty, or, at the most 
in ninety days, and he could find no one to comprehend or 
indorse his views in regard to the necessity of immediately call- 
ing out an immense army /or the war. Ijj^n the organization, 
however, of the new regiments of the regular army, in June, 
1861, he was made colonel of the new 13th infantry, his com 
mission dating from May 14th, 1861. His first actual service 
in the war was at the battle of Bull Eun, or Manassas, where he 
commanded the Third Brigade in the First (Tyler's) Division. 
The spirited manner in which he handled his men was in strong 
contrast to the many disgraceful scenes which have made that 
day one of ignoble memories. The vigor and desperate valor, 
indeed, with which Sherman fought his brigade on that occasion, 
is evidenced by the fact that its losses were far heavier than 
any other brigade in the Union army ; his total of killed, 
wounded and missing, being six hundred and nine, while that 
of the whole division was but eight hundred and fifty-nine, and 
of the entire army, aside from prisoners and stragglers, but fif- 
teen hundred and ninety. His valor and good conduct were 
promptly rewarded by his appointment as a brigadier general 
of volunteers, his commission dating from May 17th, 1861 ; 
and, early in August, he was made second in command of the 
Department of the Ohio, under General Anderson. On the 8th 
of October he was appointed to the chief command, in place of 
that general, who had been obliged to resign on account of ill 
health. The Department of the Ohio, which, at tliis time, com- 
prised all east of the Mississippi, and west of the Alleghanies, 
was in a deplorable condition ; paucity of troops ; insufficiency 
of supplies and munitions of war; a surrounding country, luke- 
warm, if not openly inimical to the Union cause, and the clofie 



WILLIAM TKCUMSEH SHERMAN". 73 

proximity of large, well equipped and well officered forces of 
the enemy (who, if they had known his' real condition, could 
have driven him " out of his boots" in ten days) rendered Sher- 
man's situation a most unenviable one. In addition to the 
pressure of these unfavorable circumstances, he now found him- 
self annoyed and seriously endangered by the presence in his 
camp of numbers of those "gad-flies" of the press — newspaper 
letter writers and reporters — whose indiscreetness threatened 
to reveal to the enemy, the very facts which most needed con- 
cealment. He soon put an end to this risk by a stringent 
general-order, which excluded the whole busy crew from his 
lines, and, of course, brought down upon his own head an ava- 
lanche of indignation from a hitherto '* untrammeled press." 
Sherman's greatest difficulty, however, was the impossibility of 
making the Government comprehend the magnitude of the con- 
test which it was waging, and the necessity of placing a large 
and well appointed army in the field, which should make 
short work with rebellion by the crushing weight of numbers. 
When, in October 1861, he explained to the Secretary of War 
the critical position of his own department, and, in reply to a 
question of the number of troops needed for an immediate for- 
ward and decisive movement, replied " two hundred thousand 
men" — his words were considered visionary — and he was incon- 
tinently pronounced "crazy," by government officials as well as 
by the newspaper press, who had not forgiven him ft)r his for- 
mer severity. Chagrined at the distrust of his military judg- 
ment til us evinced by his superiors, Sherman, in November 1861, 
asked to be relieved from his position, and was succeeded by 
General Buell, who, being immediately reinforced witli the 
troops so often requested by and so persistently denied to his 
predecessor, was enabled to hold the department in a defensive 
attitude, until the opening of the spring campaign. 



74 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Sherman, meanwhile, was left to rust in commanJ of Benton 
barracks, near St. Louis, until General Halleck, who succeeded 
Fremont in command of the Western Department, and who 
well knew the abilities of the man, detailed him for service in 
General Grant's army ; and, after the capture of Fort Donelson, 
he was placed in command of that general's fifth division, com- 
posed mostly of raw troops, whom he began immediately to 
drill and perfect. Soon the storm of battle again burst upon 
him, at Shiloh, April 6th, 1862, where he had taken position 
three miles out from Pittsburgh Landing, on the Corinth road. 
Sustaining, against great odds, the repeated and furious onsets 
of the enemy on the 6th, he assumed the offensive on the 7th, 
and pushed them back with heavy lo.-^s ; and, on the morning 
of the 8th, pushing still forward, met and routed their cavalry, 
and captured many prisoners and large quantities of arms and 
ammunition. During the advance upon Corinth, which followed 
this battle of Shiloh, his division was constantly in the lead and 
carried, occupied, and reintrenched seven distinct camps of tho 
enemy; and when, on the 3 'th of May, Beauregard retreated 
from the city, it was Sherman's gallant division which took 
possession of it. Occupying with these raw recruits, at the 
opening battle of Shiloh, " the key point of the landing," says 
General Grant, in his official report, " it is no disparagement lo 
any other officer to say, that I do not believe there was another 
division commander on the field who had the skill aud expe- 
rience to have done it. To his individual efforts I am indebted for 
the success of that battled General Halleek also records it as the 
"unanimous opinion, that General Sherman saved the for- 
tunes of the day ; he was in the thickest of the fight, had three 
horses killed under him, and was twice wounded"' — and in this 
eulogium of his services, every general officer, as well as others, 
heai'tily concurred. At the earnest request of Generals Grant 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN". 75 

wid Ilalleck, Sherman was made a major- ;eneral of volunteers, 
dating from May 1st, 18o2. Appointed by General Grant, in 
the spring of 1862, to the command of the district of Memphis, 
Tennessee, he thoroughly suppressed, within the course of six 
months, the guerrilla warfare and contraband trade which had 
rendered it, in the opinion of rebel officers, a more valuable 
position to them in the possession of the Federal government, 
then it ever had been while in their own. When, in December, 
1862, General Grant began his operations against Vicksburg, 
he first placed Sherman in command of the lift-^oi^th army corps, 
and after the latter had made some important recounoissances, he 
took him into his confidence regarding his plan for tl '^. capture 
of that city. According to this plan, Sherman, with four picked 
divisions, sailed from Memphis in December, to make a direct 
attack upon Chickasaw Blufis, a part of the del jnces of Vicksburg 
on the river side, while Grant himself, proceeding down the Missis- 
sippi Central railroad, to Jackson, Mississippi, vas to move to the 
rear of the city. Grant's movement, however was prevented by 
the unexpected surrender of Holly Springs, (u the Mississippi 
Central railroad, which was to be his base of supplies, and he was 
also unable to communicate the fact to Sherman. Unconscious 
of this, therefore, the latter pressed on, disembarked on the 26th 
and 27th of December, and after three days' desperate fighting, 
■which failed to make any impression upon the fortifications of 
the city, had the mortification to be superseded in command by 
General McClernand, a volunteer officer, to whom he transferred 
the command with a soldierly loyalty and manliness, which few 
men, in his circumstances, would have been able to exhibit 
towards a civilian general, and a rival. The repulse of the 
Chickasaw Blufl's, however, was subsequently fully compensated 
for by the hearty praise and candid criticism of General Grant 
and other eminent military critics, who saw, in the natural topo- 



76 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

graphy of the ground, the insuperable obstacles against which 
he had so bravely contended. Sherman's next most brilliant 
exploit was his rapid and successful movement for the relief of 
Admiral Porter's fleet of gunboats, on the Sunflower river, 
which were in danger of being hemmed in by the enemy, while 
attempting to reach Haines' Bluff, above Vicksburg, with a 
view to an attack on the city. In Grant's subsequent attempt 
on the city from below, the role assigned to Sherman was one 
involving considerable danger, and requiring a high degree of 
military tact — being a feigned attack, or rather a demonstration, 
in conjunction with the gunboats, on Haines' Bluff. This 
attack, which continued with great fury for two days, enabled 
Grant to land his troops without opposition at a point seventy 
miles below, — then, by a forced six days' march over terrible 
roads. General Sherman joined his force to that of Grant at 
Grand Gulf, and the whole army moved forward. We next 
find Sherman operating with McPherson in a series of brilliant 
movements, resulting in the rout of the enemy and the capture 
of Jackson, Mississippi, and the destruction of numerous rail- 
road bridges, machine shops, and arsenals at that point; then, 
by a succession of rapid marches, which General Grant charac- 
terized as " almost unequalled," he wrested the possession of 
Walnut Hills from the enemy, cutting their force in two, and 
compelling the evacuation of Haines', Snyder's, Walnut, and 
Chickasaw Bluffs, together with all their strong works; and 
enabling General Grant at once to open communication with 
the fleet and his new base on the Yazoo and Mississippi, above 
Yicksburg. To General Sherman it was perhaps an additional 
source of pleasure that the position which he had thus gained 
by a rear attack, was the very one against which, less than five 
months before, he had hurled his troops in vain. In the first 
assault on the enemy's lines, May 19th, Sherman's corps, alone 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN". 77 

of the tbree engaged, succeeded in making any material advance, 
The surrender of the city of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July 
brought rest and comfort to all of the brave " Army of the 
Tennessee, except to Sherman's corps, who were immediately 
started in pursuit of Johnston, then hovering in the rear of the 
Union army. Johnston marched at once to Jackson, which he 
attempted to defend, but finally, on the night of the 16th, 
evacuated hastily, abandoning every thing to Sherman, of whom 
General Grant said, in reference to this last success, " It entitles 
General Sherman to more credit than usually falls to the lot of 
one man to earn." A well earned rest of two months was 
terminated, September 23d, by orders from Grant to reinforce 
Rosecrans, who had just fought the battle of Chickamauga. 
Promptness, celerity of movement, and a force of will which 
overcame every obstacle which enemy or accident placed in his 
way, characterized his execution of this order. Arriving at 
Memphis, he pushed on to open communication between that 
city and Chattanooga; and, while so engaged, was appointed 
commander of the Army of the Tennessee, at the request of 
General Grant, who had been advanced to the command of the 
Grand Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the 
Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee. On 
the loth of November, under imperative orders from Grant, 
and by a forced march, he joined that general at Chattanooga, 
and exhausted as his men were, by the arduous march from 
Memphis, he at once received, and promptly obeyed, orders to 
cross the Tennessee, make a lodgment on the terminus of 
Missionary Ridge and demonstrate against Bragg's flank. 
The roads were in a horrible condition, but by herculean exer- 
tions, three divisions were put across the river and concealed, 
during the night of November 28d, behind some hills, and by 
one o'clock, the following morning, his whole force had crossed 



78 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

both tlie Tennessee and the Chickamauga, and under cover of 
a rain and dense fog, the cavalry dashed forward to cut the 
Chattanooga and Knoxville, and the Cleveland and Dalton rail- 
roads, while the infantry, by half past three, p. m., surprised 
and captured the fortifications on the terminus of Missionary 
Eidge ; and the Union guns being dragged up the steep ascent, 
quickly silenced the fire which was opened upon them from the 
batteries of the discomforted and enraged enemy. The night 
was spent in rest and preparation for the struggle which the 
morrow would inevitably bring for the possession of Fort Buck- 
ner, the formidable fortification which crowned the next or 
superior ridge of the hill. To General Sherman, on account of 
his known abilities and, more especially, his unquestioning 
obedience to military necessities, was assigned a task requiring 
firmness and self-sacrifice, unattended with any immediate hope 
of reputation and fame, but which he accepted with that prompt- 
ness which always characterizes him. It was, to make a per- 
sistent demonstration against Fort Buckner, in order to draw 
the enemy's force from Forts Bragg and Breckinridge, which 
being weakened, would fall an easier conquest to G rant's storm 
ing column. Splendidly did this masterly soldier and his brave 
men carry out their part in the programme of the battle of the 
25th. From sunrise, until three o'clock, they surged forward 
in desperate charges upon the fortifications of the crested 
heights above them — again and again were repulsed — slill 
gained a little and steadily held what they gained — until the 
enemy had massed nearly his whole force against the struggling 
column ; when, suddenly. Hooker swooped down upon Fort 
Bragg, and at twenty minutes to four P. M., Thomas's Fourth 
army corps, charging in solid column up the ridge, carried Fort 
Breckinridge by assault — and the battles of Chattanooga were 
won. The glorious success of that day was due quite as much 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SnERMAN. 79 

to the persistency and stubbornness with which General Sherman 
held the crest of Tunnel ITill, as to the gallant daring of the 
other divisions ; and, without the former, the latter could never, 
by any possibility, have succeeded. 

Victory, however, brought no respite to Sherman and his 
tired veterans. The flying foe was to be pursued and railroad 
connections severed ; and, while so engaged, they were ordered 
to the relief of Knoxville, where twelve thousand men under 
'General Burnside were closely besieged by Longstreet. Eighty- 
four miles of terrible roads, and two rivers, lay between them 
and Knoxville, which must be reached in three days. Seven days 
before they had left their camp beyond the Tennessee, with 
only two days' rations, and but a single coat or blanket per 
man, officers as well as privates, and with no other provisions 
but such as they could gather by the road. In that time, also, 
they had borne a conspicuous part in a terrible battle, and well 
might they have been excused if they had grumbled at this 
fresh imposition of extra duty. But with them "to hear was 
to obey." The railroad bridge across the Hiawassee was repaired 
and planked ; they then pushed forward to the Tennessee, and 
found the bridge there destroyed by the enemy, who retreated. 
Despatching Colonel Long with the cavalry brigade, with orders 
to ford the Little Tennessee, and communicate tidings of the 
approaching relief to General Burnside within twenty-four 
hours, Sherman turned aside to Morgantown, where he extem- 
porized a bridge, which he crossed on the night of December 
4th; and the next morning received information from Bum- 
side of Colonel Long's safe arrival, and that all was well. 
Moving still rapidly forward, he was met at Marysville, on the 
evening of the 5th, by the welcome news of the abandonment 
of the siege by General Longstreet, on the previous evening. 
Halting at Marysville, he sent forward two divisions, uudez 



80 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

General Granger, to Knoxville, and every thing there being found 
safe, returned leisurely with the rest of his army to Chattanooga 
The three months' campaign thus closed, had been one of 
extreme fatigue and brilliant success. Leaving Vicksburg, 
they had marched four hundred miles, without sleep for three 
successive nights, fought at Chattanooga^ chased the enemy 
out of Tennessee, and turning more than a hundred miles north- 
ward, had compelled the raising of the siege of Knoxville. 
All this had been done, much of the time, in the depth of winter, 
over a mountainous region, sometimes barefoot, without regular 
rations or supplies of any kind, and yet without a murmur. 
" Forty rounds of ammunition in our cartridge-boxes, sixty 
rounds in our pockets; a march from Memphis to Chattanooga; 
a battle and pursuit ; another march to Knoxville ; and viciory 
everywhere," was the proud answer of one of these fifteenth 
corps soldiers, in reply to the sentinel who asked him where his 
badge was. And the cartridge-box with forty rounds, thence- 
forth, became the emblem of the fifteenth corps. 

Early in 1863, Gen. Sherman planned an expedition into 
Central Mississippi, which was sanctioned by Gen. Grant and 
which was immediately carried into effect. His idea was to 
march a movable column of 22,000 men, cut loose from any 
base, for one hundred and twenty miles through the enemy's 
country, which should sweep Mississippi and Alabama out 
of the grasp of the rebels. As a military conception it was un- 
surpassed in modern times, except by Sherman himself in his 
later movements; and that it failed of its intended results — and 
became merely a gigantic raid, which, however, carried terror 
and destruction into the very heart of the Confederacy — was 
owing only to the lack of proper energy in the co-operating 
cavalry force. This force, 8000 strong, leaving Memphis on the 
Ist of February, was to move down the Mobile and Ohio rail- 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 81 

road from Corinth to Meridian, destroying the road as they 
went. At Meridian they were expected to meet Sherman, who, 
with 20,000 cavalry, 1200 infantry, and twenty days' rations, 
left Vicksburg on the 3d. The cavalry force, however, were so 
badly behind time at starting, that when they did move they 
met with much opposition from the enemy, who had massed at 
different points on the route ; and they finally turned back. 
Sherman's share of the expedition was promptly carried out, 
railroad communications were cut, stores destroyed, negroes 
brought away, and an immense amount of irreparable damage 
done. Finding that the co-operating cavalry force was not " on 
time " at the appointed rendezvous, he turned his face westward 
from Meridian, followed at a very respectful distance by the 
enemy, from whom, however, he received no serious opposition. 
The failure, however, deranged and postponed, for a time, the 
contemplated attack on Mobile by Farragut. 

On the 12th of March, JSGl, Sherman succeeded to the com- 
mand of the grand military division of the Mississippi, recently 
vacated by Gen. Grant, who had been elevated to the command i 
of the armies of the United States. This division comprised i 
the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, 
and, for the time, Arkansas ; and the forces under his command 
— soon to be increased — numbered, at that time, over 150,000 
men, under such leaders as Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, 
Hooker, Howard, Stoneman, Kilpatrick, Eousseau, and others- 
of equal ability and fame. At a conference with Grant, soon, 
after this event, plans for the coming campaign had been fully 
discussed and agreed upon. It was decided that a simultaneous 
forward movement of the eastern and western armies should 
take place in May, one aiming for Eichraond, Virginia, and the 
other for Atlanta, Georgia. In less than fifty days, Sherman 

had concentrated the different army corps at Chattanooga, as 
6 



82 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

well as immense stores of arms, ammunition and cannon ; had 
re-organized and drilled his men, remounted and increased his 
cavalry, and made all the arrangements, even to the minutest 
detail, for the expected campaign. On the seventh of May, his 
army of 98,797 effective men (of which 6149 were cavalry and 
4460 artillery) and 254 guns, moved forward to its gigantic 
work — the capture of Atlanta, 130 miles distant. The region 
of Northern Georgia through which they were to pass, abounds 
in rugged hills, narrow and steep defiles and valleys, with rapid 
and deep streams; and is, in all respects, a difficult country for 
military movements. In addition to its natural topographical 
advantages, the Chattanooga and Atlanta railroad threaded 
many of these mountain passes, and these points, therefore, had 
received the special attention and scientific skill of Gen. John- 
ston, the rebel commander, who had added immensely to their 
strength by almost impregnable fortifications. Opposed to the 
Union troops, also, were about 45,000 well trained soldiers, re- 
inforced during the subsequent campaign by nearly 21,000, and 
commanded by Johnston, Hardee, Hood, and other picked gen- 
erals of the Confederacy. Again, while the rebel army, if com- 
pelled to retreat, would be only falling back upon its base of 
supplies, Sherman's army, already 350 miles from the primary 
base at Louisville, and 175 from its secondary base at Xashville, 
was increasing that distance by every step of its advance ; and 
was under the necessity of guarding its long and constantly in.- 
creasinof line of communications (one, and for a part of the dis- 
tance, two lines of railroad, and in certain conditions of naviga- 
tion, the Tennessee river) from being cut by the rebel cavalry, 
as well as from the attacks of guerrillas. Yet Sherman, during 
the succeeding five months' campaign, retained this line of 
nearly 500 miles, wholly within his control, turning to the sig- 
nal discomfiture of the enemy every attempt which they made 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. bo 

to destroy it. Dalton, a position of great strength, and which 
could only be reached by the Buzzard Roost's Gap, a narrow 
and lofty defile in the groat rock-faced ridge of the Chattoo- 
gata mountains, was the first point of attack. Protected by a 
formidable abatis, and artificially flooded from a neighboring 
creek, and commanded by heavy batteries, this defile, through 
which the railroad passed, and which oft'ered the only route to 
Dalton, was impregnable by a front attack. Leaving Thomas 
and Howard to demonstrate vigorously against it, therefore, 
Sherman, with the rest of his army, flanked it by a movement 
through Snake Creek Gap, towards Resaca, on the railroad, 
eighteen miles below Dalton. Johnston, however, fell back on 
Resaca before the Union army had reached it, while Howard 
passed through Dalton close in Johnston's rear. Once in Re- 
saca, Johnston showed fight, and Sherman having pontooned the 
Oostanaula, south of the town, and sent a division to threaten 
Calhoun, the next place on the railroad, and a cavalry division 
to cut up the railroad between Calhoun and Kingston, gave bat- 
tle at Resaca, which place, after two days' heavy fighting, the 
rebel commander abandoned in the night of the 15th, burning 
the bridge behind him, with a loss of some 3500, of whom 
1000 were prisoners, eight guns and a large amount of stores, etc. 
Pressing fiercely on his flying footsteps, Sherman sent the 14th 
corps to Rome, which was captured and garrisoned, and after a 
severe skirmish at Adairsville,he reached Kingston on the 18th, 
captured it, and gave his troops a few days' rest, while he re- 
opened communications with Chattanooga, and brought forward 
supplies for his army. On the 23d, with twenty days' rations, he 
moved forward again, flanking the dangerous defile of Allatoona 
Pass, by a rapid march on the town of Dallas. Johnston, fearing 
for the safety of his railroad communications, felt compelled to 
leave his fortified position and give battle. In rapid successioD 



84 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

followed the severe engagements at Burnt Hickory on the 2ith, 
at Pumpkinvine creek and at New Hope church, on the 25th, and 
Johnston's grand attack on General McPherson at Dallas, on the 
28th, where the former was repulsed with a loss of over three 
thousand. While this had been going on, Sherman had extended 
his left, so as to envelope the rebel right, and to occupy all the 
roads leading eastward towards Allatoona and Ackworth, and 
finally occupied Allatoona Pass with his cavalry, with a feint of 
moving further south. Suddenly, however, he reached Ackworth, 
and Johnston was obliged to fall back, on the 4th of June, to 
Kenesaw mountain. Sherman now fortified and garrisoned 
Allatoona Pass as a secondary base, repaired his communica- 
tions, and on the 9th of June received full supplies and rein- 
forcements by railroad from Chattanooga. 

Moving forward again, he proceeded to press Johnston, who 
held a finely fortified position in a triangle, formed by the north- 
ern slopes of Pine, Kenesaw, and Lost mountains. After several 
days' artillery practice, General Johnston was found, on the 
morning of the 15th, to have abandoned the first named moun- 
tain, and to be occupying a well intrenched line between the 
two latter. Sherman still pressed him until he evacuated Lost 
mountain, and, finally, was obliged to make another change — • 
with Kenesaw as his salient, covering Marieica with his right 
wing, and with his left on Norse's creek, by which means he 
hoped to gain security for his railroad line. A sally by Hood's 
corps upon the Union lines, on the 22d, was repulsed with a 
heavy loss to the assailants; and, on the 27th, Sherman made 
an assault upon Johnston's position, which was unsuccessful. 
Despite the heavy loss which they sustained, the Union troops 
were not dispirited, and a skilful manoeuvre by Sherman, com- 
pelled the evacuation of Marietta, on the 2d of July. General 
Johnston remained well intrenched on the west bq,nk of the 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 85 

Cbattahoochie, until the 5th, when a flank movement of Sher- 
man compelled him to cross, which he did in good order. But, 
on the 7th and 8th of July, Sherman secured three good pointa 
for crossing the river, and the Confederates were obliged to fall 
back to Atlanta, leaving their antagonist in full possession of 
the river. While giving his men the brief rest, which they so 
much needed, before his next move on Atlanta, eight miles dis- 
tant, Sherman on the 9th, telegraphed orders to a force of two 
thousand cavalry (which he had already collected at Decatur, 
over two hundred miles in Johnston's rear) to push south and 
break up the railroad connections around Opelika, by which 
the rebel army got its supplies from central and southern 
Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, and then join him at 
Marietta. The cavalry, under General »Kousseau, set out 
promptly, and, within twelve days, destroyed thirty miles of 
railroad, defeated the rebel General Clanton, and I'eached Mari- 
etta on the 22d, with a loss of only thirty men. Meanwhile, 
the main army had been enjoying a rest, supplies had been 
brought forward, railroad guards and garrisons strengthened, 
roads and bridges improved and the attention of the rebels 
well diverted by cavalry expeditions which were sent down 
the river. On the ITth, then, a general advance was made, and 
the same evening the Union army formed its line along the 
old Peach Tree road. The next day McPherson and Schofield, 
swinging around upon the Augusta railroad, east of Decatur, 
broke it up most eft'ectually, and, on the 19th, Thomas crossed 
Peach Tree creek on numerous bridges thrown across in face 
of the enemy's lines. All this was accomplished with heavy 
skirmishing, and on the 20th, Hood (who, three days })revious, 
had succeeded General Johnston in the supreme command of 
the Confederate army), taking advantage of a gap between two 
corps of the Union army, hurled his whole force upon its left 



86 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

wing, with the hope of cutting oiYand routing it. llis skilfully 
conceived stratagem, however, was foiled by the unexpected 
steadiness of the Union soldiers, and after a terrible battle the 
enemy was driven back to his intrenchments, with a loss of 
over five thousand men. Retreating to his interior lines along 
the creek, forming the outer lines of the defences proper of 
Atlanta, Hood now massed nearly his whole force, and, upon 
the 22d, fell upon Sherman's left with great fury. Six times 
during tbe day his columns desperately charged upon the 
Union lines, but at night he was compelled to withdraw with 
a loss of fully 12,000 men, of whom over 8000 were killed, 
5000 stand of arms and eighteen flags. The Union loss was 
but 1,720, but among the slain was the able and beloved Major- 
Gen eral James B. McPherson, commander of the army of the 
Tennessee, whose death was not only a serious blow to General 
Sherman, but was generally regarded as a national misfortune. 
The day following this severely contested battle. General Gar- 
rard's cavalry force, which had been sent to Covington, Georgia, 
to break the railroad and bridges near that place, returned to 
headquarters, having fully executed his mission with great 
damage to the rebel cotton and stores, and a considerable num- 
ber of prisoners. An expedition, however, planned by General 
Sherman fur the destruction of the Atlanta and Macon, and ihe 
West Point railroads, with the view of severing Atlanta from 
all its communications and compelling its surrender, was not so 
successful. A portion of it, under General McCook, performed 
its share speedily and well, but the co-operating force under 
General Stoneman unfortunately failed — the general and a 
large number of his men being captured — while McCook was 
obliged to fight his way out; the whole entailing a heavy loss 
of cavalry to the Union army. 

On the 28th of July, Hood in full force again assaulted the 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN". 87 

Union army on the Bell's Ferry road — expecting to catch its 
right flank " in air." He founrl, however, that Sherman was 
perfectly prepared for him — and, after six desperate assaults, 
gave it up as a bad job, having lost fully 5000 men, which, 
with his losses in the previous battles of the 20th and 23d, 
placed nearly one half of his force hors du combat. Hoping, by 
threatening his communications, to draw Hood out from hi? 
fortifications, Sherman now extended his line southwesterly 
towards East Point. The ruse failed, however, and the only 
alternative remaining to compass the capture of Atlanta, in- 
volved the necessity of another flank movement of the whole 
army, a difl&cult and unwelcome matter both as regarded the 
further removal of the army from its base of supplies and the 
apparent raising of the siege. But there seemed to be no other 
way, and accordingly, on the nights of the 25th and 26th, a por- 
tion of his army was withdrawn to the Chattahoochie, and 
Hood congratulated himself that a cavalry expedition which he 
had sent northward to break the Union connections between 
Allatoon? and Chattanooga, had alarmed Sherman for the 
safety of his communications, and compelled him to raise the 
siege. The joy of the rebels, however, was of short duration ; 
on the 29th of August, they learned that Sherman's army was 
sweeping their own railroad communications at West Point 
with a "besom of destruction" — and on the 31st, two rebel 
corps, which had been hastily pushed forward to Jonesboro, 
were heavily repulsed by the advancing Union armies. Find- 
ing his communications now irretrievably lost, by this flank 
movement of his antagonist. Hood retreated, on the niglit of 
September 1st. to Lovejoy's Station. Atlanta was occupied, 
the next day, by the victorious Union troops, and the city was 
immediutely converted into a strictly military post. The loss 
jf Atlanta was a severe blow to the rebels; and, under orders 



88 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

from President Davis, on the 24:th of September, Hood ini- 
tiated a series of movements by which he hoped to recover 
not only it, but northern Georgia and east and middle Ten- 
nessee, Sherman, however, kept a watchful eye upon him 
and pursued him closely to Gaylesville, where he could watch 
him intrenched at Will's Gap, in Lookout mountain. Divin- 
ing, further, that Hood meditated a union with General Dick 
Taylor at Tuscumbia, Alabama, and a joint attempt by them, 
for the recovery of middle and east Tennessee, he divided his 
army, giving a share to his trusted friend General George H. 
Thomas, Avith orders to hold Ttanessee against the rebels. 
Then, announcing to his army that he should follow Hood 
northward no longer, but "if he would go to the river, he 
would give him his rations," he moved back to Atlanta, by the 
1st of November, and sent the railroad track, property of value, 
etc., at that city and along the line, to Chattanooga, which 
thenceforward became the outpost of the Union army in that 
direction. Leaving Tennessee safe in Thomas's charge, and 
Schofield to keep the rebels out of Chattanooga and Nashville, 
Sherman now prepared for a campaign which he had already 
projected through Georgia and North Carolina "to the sea." 
"They are at my mercy," he telegraphed to Washington, "and 
I shall strike. ' Do not be anxious about me. I am all right." 
With the army under his command, consisting of nearly 60,000 
infantry, and 10,000 cavalry, he proposed to cut loose from all 
bases, and, with thirty or forty days' rations and a train of the 
smallest possible dimensions, to move southeastward through 
the very heart of the Confederacy, upon Savannah ; thence, if 
favored by circumstances, to turn northward through North and 
South Carolinas, thus compelling the surrender or evacuation 
of Richmond. With General Sherman, action follows close on 
thought. Destroying all the public buildings of Atlanta, he 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 89 

moved. forward in two columns, the right commanded by Gen- 
eral Howard and the left by General Slocum, while a cloud of 
cavalry floating around the main body, shrouded the real inten- 
tions of the march with a degree of mystery impenetrable to 
the enemy. General Howard's column, accompanied by Gen- 
eral Sherman, passed through East Point, Rough and Ready, 
Griffin, Jonesboro, McDonough, Forsythe, Hillsboro, and Monti- 
cello, reaching Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, on the 20th 
of November ; thence via Saundersville and Griswold to Louis- 
ville. The left wing, meanwhile, under Slocum, had marched 
through Decatur, Covington, Social Circle, Madison ; threatened 
Macon with attack, then through Buckhead and Queensboro, 
and divided, one part moving towards Augusta, the other to 
Eatonton and Sparta. Here, uniting, they entered Warren and 
finally joined the right wing at Louisville. The whole force 
now moved down the left bank of the Ogeechee to Millen and 
thence to the Savannah canal, where their scouts, on the 9th 
of December, communicated with General Poster and Admiral 
Dahlgren, who where there waiting for their arrival. 

During this magnificent march of three hundred miles, they 
had met with no very serious opposition, and the few troopa 
which the rebel generals could muster, were skilfully thrown 
•out of his way by Sherman's feints on Macon and Augusta — 
by which they were garrisoned for the defence of those cities. 
So completely, indeed, was General Bragg fooled by his wily 
antagonist, that when Savannah was actually attacked, he was 
unable to come to its relief. Fort McAllister was carried by 
storm, by the Union troops, on the 13th of December, and on 
the 16th, the city, which, by some strange oversight, had only a 
garrison of one hundred and fifty men, was summoned to 
surrender. General Hardee, who commanded these, refused, 
whereupon Sherman commanded to invest the city, with the 



90 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

design of bombarding it. But, on the night of the 20th, under 
cover of a heavy fire from the rebel gunboats and batteries, 
Hardee abandoned the city, which was entered the next day by 
, the Union army. Into the hands of the victors fell 150 guns, 
13 locomotives, 190 cars, large stores of ammunition and sup- 
plies, 3 steamers, and 33,000 bales of cotton in warehouses. 
The expedition, the entire loss of which was less than 400 men, 
gave freedom to over 20,000 slaves who accompanied it to 
Savannah; and its course was marked by over 200 miles of 
destroyed railroad, which effectually broke the enemy's con- 
nection with Hood's and Beauregard's armies. Simultaneously, 
also, with their victorious entry into Savannah, Sherman and 
his brave veterans received the welcome news, that the Union 
army in Tennessee, decoying Hood to Nashville, liad there 
turned upon him, and utterly routed him even beyond the 
borders of Alabama. From every quarter, indeed, of Sherman's 
military jurisdiction, came the good news, that in each place his 
subordinates had proved themselves worthy of the trusts com- 
mitted to their charge. Hopefully then, the great leader turned 
to the completion of his self-imposed and herculean task. 

South Carolina — Columbia, its capital, and Charleston, " the 
nest of the rebellion," were yet to be humbled beneath the 
mailed foot of loyalty. Eefreshod, recruited and strengthened 
at every point, the army commenced its march to the northward, 
on the 14:th of January, 1865. Two corps (loth and 17th) were 
sent by transports to Beaufort, South Carolina, where they 
were joined by Foster's command, and the whole force moved 
on the Savann^^h and Charleston railroad. A few days later, 
the two remaixiing corps (l-lth and 20th) crossed the Savannah 
river, and despite the overflowed and terrible condition of the 
roads, struck the railroad between Branchville and ('harleston, 
early in February ; compelled the enemy to evacuate the former 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 91 

place on the lith, and breaking up the road so as to efFejitUrtUy 
prevent reinforcement from the west, entering Orangeburg on 
the 16th, and Columbia on the 18th, close on the heels of 
Beauregard's retreating force. This movement flanked Charles- 
ton, and Hardee, finding it untenable, retreated in the light of a 
conflagration, which laid two thirds of the business portion of 
that beautiful city in ashes. On the morning of February 18th, 
the Union troops from Morris island, entered the city, and the 
" old flag" once more floated over Fort Sumter. Moving in two 
columns, the 17th and 20th corps marched from Columbia to 
Winnsboro, thirty miles north, on the Charlotte and Columbia 
railroad, which was thoroughly destroyed. Sending Kilpatriek 
towards Chesterville, in order to delude Beauregard into the be- 
lief that he was moving on that point, Sherman turned e;ist, liis 
left wing directed towards Cheraw, and his right threatening 
Florence. On the 3d of March occurred the short and not very 
severe battle oC Cheraw, a success for the Union arms, and on tlie 
next day, March 4th, President Lincoln's second in ;uguration 
was celebrated by a salute from the rebel guns which tliev had 
captured. On the afternoon and night of the 6th, the Union 
army crossed the Great Pedee river, and in four columns, with 
outlying cavalry, swept through a belt of country forty miles 
wide, entering Laurel Hill, North Carolina, on the 8th, and 
reaching Fayetteville on the 11th. Thus far, the results of the 
campaign had been, 14 captured cities, hundreds of miles of 
railroads, and thousands of bales of cotton destroyed, 85 cannon, 
4000 prisoners, 25,000 horses, mules, etc., and 15,000 refugees, 
black and white, set at liberty. After a rest of two days, Sher- 
man moved moderately forward, meeting, fighting, and defeating 
the enemy under Johnston, at Averysboro, on the 16th, and 
again, on the 19th, at Bentonville ; finally, pressing them back 
BO swiftly on Smithfield, on the 20th and 21st, that they lost 



92 MEN" OF OUE DAY. 

seven guns and over 2000 prisoners, while deserters ponred in 
b}'^ hundreds. On the same day Schofield occupied Goldsboro, 
General Terry secured Cox's bridge, and successfully pon- 
tooned the Neuse river, and General Sherman issued a congratu- 
latory Older to his troops, in which he says : " After a march of 
the most extraordinary character, nearly five hundred miles, 
over swamps and rivers, deemed impassable to others, at tKe 
most inclement season of the year, and drawing our chief sup- 
plies from a poor and wasted country, we reach our destination 
in good health and condition — you shall now have rest, and all 
the supplies that can be brought from the rich granaries and 
storehouses of our magnificent country, before again embarking 
on new and untried dangers." The entire Union losses in killed, 
wound.'cl, and prisoners, on this sixt}^ days' march from Savan- 
nah to Goldsboro, had been less than 2500 men. Leaving his 
men to recruit their energies, Sherman went to City Point, 
where, on tlie 27th of March, he had an interview with General 
Grant and the President, returning to his camp the next day. 

His army was now only separated from Grant's by a distance 
Cff 150 miles, traversed by a railroad which could easily be put 
in ord r lor immediate use ; and, between the two, as between 
the upper and the nether millstone, the enemy were to be 
crushed by a blow, whieh, ns yet, neither army hastened to give. 

On th.' 10th of April, Sherman's army, thoroughly rested and 
fully equipped, mowd on Smithfield, which they entered on the 
following morning, Johnston, who commanded a large body 
of troops, retired across the Neuse, burning the bridge behind, 
and retreating by railroad. Sherman's men, struggling through 
roads so muddy tliat they were obliged to corduroy every foot 
of them, were cheered by the news of Lee's surrender, which 
met them eii route, and leaving their trains, they pushed ahead 
with redoubled energy, to Raleigh, which they entered in the 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHETiMAN. 



93 



earlj morning of the 15th. Sherman now took measures to cut 
off Johnston's retreat, when the latter (knowing, what Sherman 
did not, that Salisbury had been captured by the Union General 
Stoneman on the 12th. thereby closing his own avenue of escape 
to the southward) made overtures for surrender. Interviews 
between the two generals, on the 17th and 18th, (at the latter 
of which General J. C. Breckinridge, then acting Secretary of 
War of the Confederacy, was present) resulted in the drawing 
up of a joint memorandum, to be submitted to the Presidents of 
the United States and of the Confederate Government, and if 
approved by them to be acted upon. The points of this memo- 
randum were briefly as follows : (1) the contending armies to 
remain in statu quo^ hostilities not to be resumed until within 
forty -eight hours after due notice from either side; (2) the 
Confederate armies then in the field to disband, march to 
their respective State capitals, there to deposit their arms and 
public property, and each man to execute an agreement to cease 
from acts of war. The number of arms, etc., to be reported to 
the chief of ordnance at Washington, subject to the future ac- 
tion of the United States Congress, and, meanwhile, to be used 
only to maintain peace and order within the borders of the 
several States; (3) the recognition, by the Executive of the 
United States, of the several State governments, on their oflicera 
and legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution 
of the United States ; and the legitimacy of any conflicting 
State governments to which the war may have given rise, to be 
submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States ; (4) the 
re-establishment of all Federal courts in the several States, with 
powers as defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress; 
(5) the guarantee, by the Executive, to the people of all the States, 
of their political rights and franchises, as well as personal and 
property rights, according to the Constitutions of the United 



94< MEN OF OUR DAY. 

States and tlie several States; (6) the people not to be dis- 
turbed by the United States Government, on account of the late 
war, so long as they lived in peace, obeyed their local laws, and 
abstained from acts of armed hostility ; (7) on the above condi- 
tions, a general amnesty. This agreement, which was evidently 
entered into by Sherman under the full conviction that slavery 
was dead and the rebellion totally crushed, was received at 
Washington, by the Cabinet, just at the moment that their 
hearts and the public mind were intensely agitated and confused 
by the recent atrocious assassination of President Lincoln, the 
attempt on Secretary Seward's life, and the other startling 
events of the day. To men in such a frame of mind, and 
when read by the light of surrounding circumstances, its terms 
seemed unpardonably liberal. Forgetting that his action coin- 
cided exactly with the published policy of the late President 
(in his permission [April 7th] to the Virginia legislature to 
meet and adopt such measures as should withdraw the State 
troops from the Confederate force) ; and forgetting, also, that 
Sherman, in his recent great march, had been completely isola- 
ted from the outside world, and was ignorant of any change of 
policy on the part of the new Presideni — the Cabinet set the 
seal of its disapproval upon the course which the gallant chief- 
tain had submitted to their consideration. Yet, it is worthy of 
note, that, as events have since turned, the relations of these 
States to the Union have been based upon the identical policy 
which Sherman's course then indicated. General Grant went, 
therefore, immediately to Ealeigh, where he arrived on the 24th, 
and Sherman promptly notified the enemy of the termination 
of the armistice at the end of forty-eight hours. Johnston im- 
mediately signified to Sherman his desire for a conference, which 
resulted, on the 2()th, in the surrender of the Confederate army 
to General Sherman, on the terms awarded to General Lee 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 95' 

30,000 soldiers, 15,000 muskets, 108 pieces of artillery were 
surrendered, and the war of the rebellion was virtually ended. 
On the -ith of May, the greater part of his army moved northward 
to Richmond and Washington, where they were reviewed, May 
24th, 1865, and about two-thirds of them disbanded, the war 
having so nearly closed, as to render their further presence in 
the field unnecessary. 

From June 27th, 1865, to Augpt 11th, 1866, General Sherman 
held the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi 
(including Ohio, Missouri, and Arkansas), with headquarters 
at St. Louis; and, from the latter date, of the Military Division 
of Missouri, which command he retained till March 5, 1869. He 
was also appointed a member of the Board to make recommen- 
dations for brevets to general officers, March 14th to 24:th, 1866 ; 
and was sent on a special mission to Mexico, in November and 
December, 1866. On the 25th of July, 1866, by vote of Congress, 
he was created Lieutenant-General of the United States 
Army, a deserved acknowledgment of his valor, skill, and 
patriotism. On the 19th of the same month, he received from 
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Laws. On the 5th of March, 1869 he was nominated 
by President Grant, and the same day confirmed by the Senate, 
as General of the United States Army, succeeding in this, as 
in his previous promotion, the President, who had on assuming 
the Presidential office resigned his commission of General. Gen- 
eral Sherman was himself succeeded in the Lieutenant-General- 
ship by Major-General Sheridan. The duties of this high office 
being, in time of peace, mostly of a routine character, General 
Sherman took up his residence in Washington, and gave his atten- 
tion to them, visiting, however, from time to time the various divi- 
sions and departments. In November, 1871, he sailed for Europe 
acconroanied by Lieutenant Fred. D. Grant, the eldest son of the 



96 



MEN OF OUR DAY. 



President, who had a few months previous graduated from West 
Point. At the time of our writing (June, 1872) he is on the 
European Continent, having visited Egypt, Turkey and the 
Kingdom of Italy. 

General Sherman is tall and slender, but possesses great elas- 
ticity and power of endurance. His temperament is nervous and 
wiry, with a dash of the sanguineous, indicated by his auburn 
hair and beard. His manners ^re slightly brusque and austere, 
and he has a quick, jerky way of speaking. He is a great smoker, 
but chews and bites his cigar somewhat viciously, especially 
when, as is often the case, he is in one of his abstracted moods, 
and thinking closely. He requires but little sleep. As a writer 
he expresses himself with great terseness and force, sometimes 
condensing a whole volume of military law into a single sentence. 
He is imperious, positive, and dogmatical, but he has usually 
thought out his opinions carefully before committing them to 
writing. His mind acts with great rapidity, and though some- 
times eccentric and crotchety, he generally reasons accurately 
and well. With all his iniperiousness and dogmatism, he always 
recognises the great military law, that " unhesitating obedience 
is the first duty of a soldier." 

General Sherman -is a man of higher genius, as well as of 
broader culture, than General Grant, yet we doubt if he would 
be quite as safe a man, as the commander-in-chief of our armies 
in a great war. He is, indeed, well versed in both the theory and 
practice of logistics ; and in handling an army of a hundred thou- 
sand nu n or more with masterly skill, he has not a dozen equals, 
and perhaps hardly a superior in the world. His deficiency, if 
he has one, would be manifested in his unwillingness, in the 
midst of a great contest, to subordinate the military to the civil 
power, liowever necessary it might be to do so. General Sher- 
man's ambition lies wholly in the military direction, and although 



WIILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 



97 



he has attained to the highest command possible in this country, 
he does not relax his military studies. He took great delight in 
following out the admirable strategical plans of General Moltke, 
in the recent Franco-German-war. As a commander he has 
always had the regard of his soldiers, not from personal magnetism, 
like Sheridan or McPherson, but from the conviction ^hat their 
grim chieftain would share their toils and privations uncomplain- 
ingly, and that he took a special interest in seeing their wants 
supplied and their comfort secured. 
1 



•ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 



'^"^'^^ courage and splendid fighting qualities are inherited, 
'^ll Admiral Porter should be, as he is, one of the best tight- 
gI?^ ing men in the navy, for he is the youngest son of that 
'S' old Viking, Commodore David Porter, who, in the war 
of 1812, was the terror of the British marine, and who, while, 
unlike Semmes of the Alabama, he never let slip an ojiportunity 
of engaging a war vessel of the enemy, even if she carried twice 
his armament, made worse havoc with their mercantile marine, 
than Semmes did with ours. The career of the frigate Essex, 
and her untoward fate, made the old commodore a hero for the 
rest of his life. After the close of the war he served as a mem- 
ber of the board of Navy Commissioners from 1815 to 1823, 
but the longing for the sea was too strong for him to overcome, 
and an opportunity occurring for a cruise to destroy the pirates 
who were infesting the West Indies, he gladly took command, 
and served two years, when, having punished with some severity 
an insult offered by the authorities of one of the islands, he was 
c:illed home, and a naval court martial having decided that he 
bad transcended his authority, he was suspended from command 
for six months. He resigned soon after, and for the next four 
years was commander-in-chief of the naval forces 'of Mexico. 
Keturning to the United States in 1829 he was appointed consul 
general to the Barbary powers, and thence transferred first as 
98 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 99 

cliarg(3 and afterward as minister, to Constantinople, wliere he 
remained till his death in 1843. 

Ilis youngest son, David D. Porter, was born in Philadelphia 
in June, 1813, and, while still a child, aucornpanied his father 
in his cruise after the pirates in 1823-25. We believe he was 
also with him in Mexico. 

On the 2d of February, 1829, he received his warrant as mid- 
shipman, being appointed from Pennsylvania. He was ordered 
to the frigate Constellation, thirty-six guns, stationed in the 
Mediterranean, under Commodore Biddle and Captain Wads- 
worth. 

In 1831, the Constellation was ordered home, and laid up in 
ordinary at Norfolk, and Porter was granted leave of absence, 
after which, in 1832, he was ordered back to the Mediterranean 
on the new flag-ship United States, a forty-four gun frigate, 
under Captain Nicholson, Commodore Patterson having charge 
of the squadron. On the 3d of July, 1835, he passed his ex- 
amination, and was recommended for early promotion. During 
the years 1836 to 1841, he was appointed on the Coast Survey 
and exploring expeditions, and stood on the list of passed mid- 
shipmen at the following numbers: — January 1, 1838, No. Ill; 
Janaary 1, 1839, No. 84; January 1, 1840, No. 61, and January 
1, 1841, at No. 48. 

On the 27th of February, 1841, he was commissioned a 
lieutenant, and ordered to the frigate Congress, a forty-four 
gun vessel-of-war. He then rejoined the Mediterranean squad- 
ron, and after a short time this vessel was ordered on the 
Brazilian station. lie still retained his position on the same 
frigate, and was on her more than four years ; for his name is re- 
oorded as one of her lieutenants on the rolls of the Navy Depart- 
ment for the years commencing January 1, 1842, 1843, 1844, and 
1845. He had not risen much during these years; for on the 



100 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

llrst mentioued date his name stood at Is , 267 on the list cf 
lieutenants ; on the second at No. 258 ; on the third at No. 245, 
and on the last at No. 232. At the latter end of 1845 he was 
attached to the Observatory at Washington on special duty, 
which position he still held at the commencement and during a 
part of the year 1846. He then stood No. 228 on the list. On 
January 1, 1847, after having performed some brilliant exploits 
in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican war, he is entered 
as being in charge of the rendezvous at New Orleans, from 
which he was detached to again join the Coast Survey, on 
which service his name is recorded on January 1, 1848. Dur- 
ing this year he was appointed to the command of the schooner 
Petrel, engaged on the survey. 

In February, 1849, he left New York as the commander of 
the steamship Panama, the third of the vessels constituting the 
line of American mail steamers first established for service on 
the Pacific. The pioneer passage of the Panama was attended 
with incidents which displayed on the part of the commander 
courage, caution, patience, and thoroughly competent qualifica- 
tions for the post to which he had been assigned. After taking 
the vessel safely to Panama Bay, he was ordered to New York 
to the command of the mail steamer Georgia, which command 
he held during the latter part of 1850, the years 1851 and 1852, 
and a great portion of 1853. 

Amongst the many gallant exploits of Admiral Porter was 
that of running the steamer Crescent City (appropriately named) 
into the harbor of Havana, during the excitement between the 
two countries relative to the ship Black "Warrior. The Spanish 
government had refused to permit any United States vessel to 
enter that port. Eunning under the shotted guns of Moro Cas- 
tle, he was ordered to halt. He promptly replied that he cap- 
ried the United States flag and the United States mails, and, by 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 101 

ihe Eternal, tie would go in ; and he did, the Habaneros fearin,<:; 
to fire upon him. He said afterwards that he intended firing 
his six-pounder at them once in defiance, after which he would 
haul down hi- flag. During the Mexican war, Admiral Porter, 
tlien a lieutenant, took a very active part in the naval portion 
of that conflict. He was the executive officer and first 
lieutenant und^r the famous Commodore Tatnall, who had 
charge of the mosquito fleet in the waters of the Gulf, Their 
adventures before Vera Cruz are not likely soon to be forgotten. 

On the 1st of January, 1854, he is recorded absent again on 
leave, and at the beginning of the next year awaiting orders. 
His name now stood at No. 138. During 1855 he was ordered 
to the command of the storeship Supply, and held this com- 
mand during the next year, until February, 1857. He was 
then, ordered on shore duty, and on the 1st of January, 1860, 
was at the Navy Yard at Portsmouth as third in command. 

At the beginning of the year 1861, he was under orders to 
join the Coast Survey on the Pacific, but, fortunately, had not 
left when the rebellion broke out. His name at this time stood 
number six on the list of lieutenants. The resignation of 
several naval traitors left room for his advancement, and the 
"Naval Register" for August 31, 1861, places him number 
seventy-seven on the list of commanders, with twenty others 
between him and the next grade of rank below. He was then 
placed in command of the steam sloop-of-war Powhatan, a vessel 
of about twenty-five hundred tons, and armed with eleven guns. 
In her he to Dk part in one section of the blockading squadron, 
and left that ship to take the special charge of the mortar expe- 
dition. The active part he took in the reduction of the forts 
below New Orleans will make his name ever memorable in 
connection with the mortar fleet, or "bummers," as the sailors 
terra them. After the capture of New Orleans he. with his 



102 A. EN OF OUR DAY. 

fleet, went up the MississipjM river, and was engaged in several 
affairs on that river, including that of Vioksburg. Fnnn that 
place ho was ordered to the James river, and returned in the 
Octorara. When oflt" Charleston, on his way to Fortress Monroe, 
he lell in with and eupturc-d the Anglo-rebel steamer Tubal 
Cain, It was at lirst supposed that he would have been placed 
in command of the James river flotilla; but fi-oni some cause 
this plan was changed. lie was allowed leave of absence to 
recruit his health, while his mortar fleet was engaged on the 
Chesapeake and in front of .lialtinK)re. 

In October, 1862, he was a})pointed to the command of the 
Mississi[)pi gunboat flotilla, as successor to Commodore Davis, 
with the rank of acting rear-admiral, and was required to 
co-operate with General Grant in the assault and siege of Vicka- 
burg. His services in that siege form a record of which any 
man might be proud. His squadron was a large one, composed 
of vessels of all sizes, many of them constructed under his own 
su})ervisi m, and a considerable number were armed steamers, 
plated with from three to four and a half inches of iron and 
capable of resisting the shot of any but the heaviest batteries. 
His previous very thorough knowledge of the Mississippi river 
was of great advantage tt) him in this service, as well as 
iu his operations previously and subsequently in the lower 
Mississippi. In General Grant he evidently found a co-worker 
after his own heart, for imperious and exacting as the admiral's 
temper is, they h;ld no dillieulties, and he entered most heartily 
into all the general's elVorts io find a suitable point for assailing 
successfully the Gibraltar of the rebellion. Previous to the 
coming of General Grant's army to Young's Point, Admiral 
Porter had chaired the lower Yazoo of torpedoes, losing one 
gunboat (the Cairo) in the attempt; had assisted Gereral Slier 
man to the utmost of his ability in his attack upon Chickasaw 



ADMIRAL DAVID I). PORTER. 103 

Bluffs; and accompanying General McClernand in Lis expedi- 
tion to the post of Arkansas and the White river, had born 
barded the fort (Fort Ilindman) till it surrendered, and broken 
up the other small forts and driven out the rebel steamers on 
the White river. He also succeeded in blockading eleven rebel 
steamers in tbe Yazoo, Ilis activity during the next six 
months w^as incessant; now sending gunboats and rams down 
the river past the batteries of Vicksburg to destroy the rebel 
rams and steamers and capture the supplies intended for Vicka- 
burg and Port Hudson ; then firing at the upper or lower 
batteries of Vicksburg, cutting the levee at Yazoo pass and en 
deavoring to force a passage through the Yallobusha and 
Tallahatchee into the Yazoo; and failing in this, cutting his 
way through the labyrinth of bayous and creeks to attain the 
aame end. These exercises were varied by sending occasional- 
ly a coal barge fitted up as a monitor, past the batteries, 
greatly to the fright of the rebels, who, after concentrating the 
fires of their batteries on the contrivance without effect, were 
so badly scared as to destroy the best gunboat (the Indianola 
taken from Lieutenant Commander Brown) they had on the 
river, from fear of its capture by this formidable monitor. 
Then came the hazardous experiment of running gunboats 
past the batteries, twice repeated, to aid General Grant in hi.H 
movement to approach Vicksburg from below and from the 
rear. The success of these enterprises, only two transports out 
of sixteen or eighteen, and none ot the gunboats, being destroyed, 
was remarkable, and of itself evinced great skill and caution on 
the part of the admiral. The fight at Grand Gulf was a severe 
one, and not successful, but the night following the batteries 
were run, and the troops ferried over to Bruinsburg, from 
whence they marched to Jackson and to the rear of Vicksburg. 
Meanwhile a part of the spuadron had been engaged in aidiufjj 



104 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

Sherman in making a demonstration on Haines' Bluff to draw 
off the attention of the rebels from Grant's approach hj the 
south. 

When, on the 19th of May, Grant's army made their first; 
assault on the rear of Vicksburg, and on the 22d of May, when 
the second assault was made, Admiral Porter maintained a 
heavy fire in front, to distract the attention of the rebels ; and 
during the whole siege, whenever a ball or shell could be 
thrown from his squadron either above or below the city with 
good effect, it was promptly and accurately hurled. The sur- 
render of Vicksburg, on the 4th of Jul}'-, and of Port Hudson 
on the 9th, opened the Mississippi to our fleet and to merchant 
steamers, and thenceforth the fleet on the Mississippi acted 
only as an armed river patrol. The duties of the squadron in 
these respects were, however, somewhat arduous for a time. 
The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and the Ohio, were in- 
cluded Avithin its cruising ground ; and the pursuit of Morgan's 
expedition to Bufiington island, and the repressing of occasional 
rebel raids, kept them almost constantly on the alert. 

Early in March, 186-i, Admiral Porter ascended the Red 
river to co-operate with General Banks in his expedition to 
break up the rebel posts on that river, and penetrate by that 
route into Texas, The expedition was at first successful, and 
captured the forts of the enemy, and their principal towns, in a 
series of brief engagements. But, as they ascended the river, 
the greed of gain seemed to take possession of the squadron, 
and large quantities of cotton were gathered up from both 
shores of the river and brought on board the gunboats ; and 
they were forced so far up the falling stream, that they were in 
great danger of being unable to return, and so of becoming a prey 
to the rebels. The army, too, had been seriously repulsed, and 
had made a somewhat hasty retreat as far as Grand Ecore, 



I 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 105 

From this point downward the squadron was in constant 
trouble — the larger vessels getting aground, hard and fast, 
several times a day, and being compelled to tie up at night ; 
harassed almost every hour by small bodies of rebel troops, 
whom they could only keep off by a free use of canister and 
grape shot ; not making more than thirty miles a day, and the 
river constantly falling. At length, thirty miles below Grand 
Ecore, the Eastport, the largest vessel of the squadron, stuck 
fast and hard upon the rocks in the channel, and could not be 
moved ; and the admiral was compelled to give orders for her 
destruction. The attempt made by the rebels to board the 
Cricket, another of his gunboats, at this juncture, was so se- 
verely punished, that they disappeared, and were not seen again 
until the mouth of Cane river, twenty miles below, was reached. 
Here was a rebel battery of eighteen guns, and a severe fight 
ensued. The Cricket, which was but lightly armed (being, as 
the men were in the habit of saying, only " tin clad"), was very 
badly cut up, almost every shot going through her, two of her 
guns being disabled, and half her crew, and her pilot, and chief 
engineer, being either killed or badly wounded. Here the 
splendid personal bravery of Admiral Porter proved their sal- 
vation. He improvised gunners from the negroes on board, 
put an assistant in the place of the chief engineer, took the helm 
himself, and ran past the battery under a terrific fire, which he 
returned steadily with such of his guns as were still serviceable. 
The other gunboats, though sadly injured, at length got by — 
the Champion, only, being so much disabled as to be unable to 
go on, and being destroyed by order of Admiral Porter. 

On reaching Alexandria, matters were still worse. In the 
low stage of water, the rapids were impassable by the gur- 
boats, and at first their destruction seemed inevitable. But 
the engineer of the Nineteenth army corps, Lieutenant-Colonel 



106 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Joseph Bailey (afterward promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general for this great service), devised a way of floating them 
over the rapids, by the construction of a series of wing-daraa 
partly across the river at several points. The task was hercu- 
lean, but it was skilfully and speedily accomplished, and by the 
13th of May all the gunboats had passed the barrier and were 
on their way to the Mississippi river, still one hundred and fifty 
miles distant. Before this time, however, two small gunboats 
and two transports, laden with troops, were attacked by the 
rebels, and both the transports and one gunboat captured, and 
the other burned. Admiral Porter returned to his patrol of 
the Mississippi, from whence, soon after, he was transferred to 
the command of the North Atlantic squadron. Here he was 
busy, for a time, with the removal of torpedoes in the naviga- 
ble waters of Virginia and North Carolina ; in capturing block- 
ade runners ; and cruising after the pirates who seized our 
merchant steamers. But his restless activity and energy could 
not be satisfied without striking a blow at the chief port of 
entry for which the blockade runners aimed, and into which at 
least seven out of every ten succeeded in entering. AVilming- 
tdn. North Carolina, had, during the whole war, been one of 
the chief seats of the contraband trade of the rebels, and the 
blockade runners had been more successful in okuling the vigi- 
lance, or escaping from the pursuit of the blockading squadron 
there, than either at Charleston or Mobile. This was due in 
part to its position, and the defences of the harbor. Five forta 
protected the entrance to the estuary of Cape Fear river; and 
while they were sufficient to prevent any access to the river by 
the blockading squadron, they effectually shielded the block- 
ade runners, who succeeded in effecting an entrance, by either 
inlet, to the estuary. Of these works, Fort Fisher, one of the 
most formidable earthworks on the coast, was the chief; and it 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. lOT 

was to the reduction of this, that the attention of Rear- Admiral 
Porter* was directed. The Navy Department, which liad been 
instrumental in his transfer to the North Atlantic squadron, 
heartily seconded his efforts ; and an arrangement leaving been 
made with General Grant for the necessaiy land forces to co« 
operate with the squadron, a fleet of naval vessels^ surpassing 
in numbers and equipments any that had been assembled during 
ths war, was collected with dispatch in Hampton Roads. Vari- 
ous circumstances delayed the attack until the 2'ith of Decem- 
ber, 1864. What followed, is best related in the report of the 
Secretary of the Navy. 

" On that day (December 24), Rear-Admiral Porter, with a bom- 
barding force of thirty-seven vessels, five of which were iron- 
clad, and a reserve force of nineteen vessels, attacked the forts 
at the mouth of Cape Fear river, and silenced them in one hour 
and a quarter ; but there being no troops to make an assault or 
attempt to possess them, nothing beyond the injury inflicted on 
the works and the garrison was accomplished by the bombard- 
ment. A renewed attack was made the succeeding day, but 
with scarcely better results. The fleet shelled the forts during 
the day and silenced them, but no assault was made, or attempt- 
ed, by the troops which had been disembarked for that purpose. 
Major-General Butler, who commanded the co-operating force, 
after a reconnoissance, came to the conclusion that the place 
could not be carried by an assault. He therefore ordered a re- 
embarkation, and informing Rear- Admiral Porter of his intention, 
returned with his command to Hampton Roads, Immediate 
information of the failure of the expedition was forwarded to 
the department by Rear- Admiral Porter, who remained in the 

* He was made full rear-udiniral for liis gallant services io the siege of 
Vicksburg, his commission dating from July 4th, 1863. 



108 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

vicinity with his entire fleet, awaiting the needful military aid. 
Aware of the necessity of reducing these works, and of the 
great importance which the Department attatched to closing the 
port of Wilinington,.and confident that with adequate military 
co-operation the fort could be carried, he asked for such co- 
operation, and earnestly requested that the enterprise should not 
be abandoned. In this the department and the President fully 
concurred. On the suggestion of the President, Lieutenant- 
General Grant was advised of the confidence felt by Rear- Admi- 
ral Porter that he could obtain complete success, provided he 
should be sufficiently sustained. Such military aid was there- 
fore invited as would insure the fall of Fort Fisher. 

A second military force was promptly detailed, composed of 
about 8,500 men, under the command of Major-General A. H. 
Terry, and sent forward. This of&cer arrived off' Fort Fisher, 
on the 13th of January. Offensive operations were at once 
resumed by the naval force, and the troops were landed and 
intrenched themselves, while a portion of the fleet bombarded 
the works. These operations were continued throughout the 
14th with an increased number of vessels. The 15th was the 
day decided upon for an assault. During the forenoon of that 
day, forty-four vessels poured an incessant fire into the rebel 
forts. There was, besides, a force of fourteen vessels in reserve. 
At 3 P. M., the signal for the assault was made. Desperate fight- 
ing ensued, traverse after traverse was taken, and by 10 P. M. 
the works were all carried, and the flag of the Union floated 
over them. Fourteen hundred sailors and marines were landed, 
and participated in the direct assault. 

Seventy-five guns, many of them superb rifle pieces, and 
1,900 prisoners, were the immediate fruits and trophies of the 
victory ; but the chief value and ultimate benefit of this grand 
achievement, consisted in closing the main gate through which 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 109 

the insurgents hud received supplies from abroad, and sent their 
own products to foreign markets in exchange. 

Light-draught steamers were immediately pushed over the 
bar, and into the river, the channel of which was speedily 
buoyed, and the removal of torpedoes forthwith commenced. 
The rebels witnessing the fall of Fort Fisher, at once evacuated 
and blew up Fort Caswell, destroyed Bald Head Fort and Fort 
Shaw, and abandoned Fort Campbell. Within twenty-four 
hours after the fall of Fort Fisher, the main defence of Cape 
Fear river, the entire chain of formidable works in the vicinity 
shared its fate, placing in our possession one hundred and sixty- 
eight guns of heavy calibre. 

The heavier naval vessels, being no longer needed in that 
quarter, were dispatched in different directions — some to James 
river and northern ports, others to the Gulf or the South Atlan- 
tic squadron. An ample force was retained, however, to sup- 
port the small but brave army which had carried the traverses 
of Fort Fisher, and enable it, when reinforcements should arrive, 
to continue the movement on Wilmington. 

Great caution was necessary in removing the torpedoes, 
always formidable in harbors and internal waters, and which 
have been more destructive to our naval vessels than all other 
means combined. 

About the middle of February, offensive operations were 
resumed in the direction of Wilmington, the vessels and the 
troops moving up the river in concert. Fort Anderson, an 
important work, was evacuated during the night of the 18th of 
February, General Schofield advancing upon this fort with 
8,000 men, while the gunboats attacked it by water. 

On the 21st, the rebels were driven from Fort Strong, which 
left the way to Wilmington unobstructed, and on the 22d of 
February, that city was evacuated. Two hundred and twelve 



liO MEN OF OUR DAT. 

guns were taken in the works from the entrance to Old river, 
including those nea-. the city, and thus this great and brilliant 
achievement was completed." 

The failure of General Butler to make the attack when ex- 
pected, though it would seem to have been justified by the 
dictates of prudence, and to have been in no respect due to any 
want of personal courage or daring on the part of the general, 
was very annoying to Rear- Admiral Porter, and led to an acri- 
monious correspondence between the two parties, neither of 
whom were at all chary in their abuse of each other. 

The termination of the war soon after the capture of "Wil- 
mington, left little more active service for the North Atlantic 
squadron, and its reduction and consolidation with the South 
Atlantic squadron followed in June, 1865. Before this, how- 
ever, on the 28th of April, Rear- Admiral Porter had been re- 
lieved, at his own request, of the command of the squadron, 
and Acting Rear- Admiral Radford succeeded him. In the few 
months' leave of absence granted him, he visited Europe. 

In September, 1865, when the Naval Academy was brought 
back to Annapolis, and partially re-organized, Rear- Admiral 
Porter was appointed its superintendent, and has remained in 
that position since that time. He has infused new energy and 
character into the instruction there, and the Academy is now a 
worthy counterpart of the Military Academy at West Point. 
On the 25th of July, 1866, Vice- Admiral Farragut being pro- 
moted to the new rank of Admiral, Rear- Admiral Porter was 
advanced to the Vice-admiralty. 

Viue-A*liiiii';il Pt)nei- i-ciiuiiiiLHl in cliarge of the Naval Academy, 
though devoting a coiisiilcrable pt)rtion of his time to the details 
of the Navy Department management, till the commencement of 
President Grant's administration, when he resigned the superin- 
tendency of the Academy, and was for some months, wliile the 



ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. Ill 

department was in charge of Mr. Borie, the Secretary of the 
Navy de facto, though not de jure. When, soon after, Admiral 
Farragut set out upon his European tour, Vice- Admiral Porter's 
presence at Washington was, in some sort, a necessity, as many of 
the questions which come up for decision in the Navy Depart- 
ment require for their proper solution the judgment and 
knowledge of naval affairs of a high officer of the Navy. Admi- 
ral Farragut died August 14, 1870, and as the rank of Admiral 
in the Navy had been created expressly to honor him, and it had 
been the intention to abolish it after his death, there seemed to 
be a probability that he would have no successor. This proba- 
bility was very galling to Vice- Admiral Porter. His ambition 
could be satisfied with nothing short of the highest position, and 
he immediately initiated measures to ensure his appointment. 
He had received from President Grant, on the 20th of September, 
1870, the temporary promotion, until the next session of Con- 
gress, when it was expected that his name would be sent to the 
Senate for confirmation as Admiral in place of Farragut deceased. 
He was on terms of friendship and intimacy with the President; 
and though there might be some objection on the part of the 
Senate, he considered his confirmation a certainty. At this 
juncture a letter written by Admiral Porter, January 21, 1865, 
and addressed to Hon. Gideon Welles, then Secretary of the 
Navy, was published by Mr. Welles. In that letter Porter, whose 
temper is none of the sweetest, had made very severe strictures on 
General Grant, who had, as he supposed,, under-rated the part 
taken by the Navy in the capture of Fort Fisher. The letter was 
unjust, and written evidently under the impulse of wounded 
pride and sensitiveness; but while it bore very hardly and unwar- 
rantably on the motives and conduct of the general, it was easy 
to see that jealousy for the honor of the Navy had led him to 
write it. . The true course for the admiral to have pursued 



112 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

would have been to have explained in a note to the President, 
that the letter, evidently a confidential one, was written under a 
misapprehension of the real circumstances of the case, and was a 
natural ebullition of wounded pride and vexation at what, he 
afterward learned, was a misstatement of the general's real 
course, that he had subsequently done him justice, and that the 
bringing forward of this letter now was simply a })i^^'* of petty 
malice. Instead of this. Admiral Porter went to the President, 
and after expressing his regrets, denied all recollection of the 
matter, and sought to mollify the President's displeasure by such 
disavowal. We think that the President must have laughed in 
his sleeve at the trepidation and humiliation of the gallant 
admiral ; but he passed over the offence, nominated the vice- 
admiral to the Senate for the rank of Admiral, and he was con- 
firmed a few days later. But though the President would not 
deprive the admiral of what he believed to be a promotion to 
which he was justly entitled, their intimacy was not subsequently 
renewed. 

Admiral Porter is a man of commanding personal appearance, 
of medium height, good features, a spare but muscular figure, of 
great physical power and capacity for endurance. He is an 
accomplished linguist, speaking fluently most of the European 
languages, and is a skilful performer on several musical instru- 
ments. Though of imperious and exacting temper, and intolerant 
of the slightest disobedience to his orders, he has always been able 
to rouse the highest enthusiasm in the men under his command. 
The secret of this is probably his extraordinary physical cour- 
age. He never asked any man in his squadron to incur any 
risk which he was not himself willing to face, and ulten in times 
of the greatest peril, he would be found in the must exposed 
position. This perfect fearlessness is the one trait in which he most 
nearly resembles the noblest of our Naval heroes — Farkagut. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 



c) yp INCE General Sheridan became famous, the honor of 
being his birth-place has been claimed by almost as 

(^^ many places as contended for the same honor in the 
^io) case of Homer. Enthusiastic Irishmen have insisted that 
he first saw the light in county Cavan, Ireland ; the army regis- 
ter for years credited Massachusetts with being the State in 
which he was born ; the newspaper correspondents, knowing 
men that they are, have traced him to Albany, New York, 
where, they say, he was born while his parents were en route for 
Ohio; while the general himself, wlio being a party to the' 
transaction should know something about it, and what is still 
more to the purpose, his parents, testify that he was born in 
Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, on the 6th of March, 1831. His 
parents were then recent emigrants from county Cavan, Ireland, 
but were not of the Scotch Irish stock so largely predominant 
in that county, but belonged to one of the original Celtic and 
Roman Catholic families of the county. 

Vain has been the attempt to find any of those inciden-ts 
which foreshadow greatness, in the boyhood of the futui-e' 
cavalry general. He was a wild, roguish, fun-loving Irish boy, 
probably fond of horses, though the Eev. P. C. Headley's story 
about his riding a half broken vicious horse when only five years 

old is pronounced by the general himself an entire fabrication. lie 
b 113 



11^ MfilN OF OUR DAY. 

went to school to an Irish schoolmaster for a time, Avlien about 
ten or twelve years old, one of Goldsmith's sort : — 

" A man severe lie was, and stern to view ; 
I knew him well, and every truant knew ; 
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace 
The day's disasters in hia morning face." 

This pedagogue gave the mischievous uiohin his full share 
of the birch, incited thereto, as one of Sheridan's schoolmates 
affirms, by the recollection of an occurrence in which Phil got 
the better of him. The story is substantially this : when Sheri- 
dan was about eleven or twelve years old, on a cold winter's 
morning, two of his schoolmates came early to the schoolhouse, 
and finding the teacher, McNanly, not yet arrived, prepared a 
somewhat unpleasant surprise for him, in the shape of a pailful 
of icy water suspended over the schoolhouse door, in such a 
way that its contents would descend upon i,he head of the one 
who should first open the door. This arranged they v^^ithdrew 
to a neighboring haymow, and waited to see the fun. McNanly 
soon came, unlocked the door and received the ducking, which 
naturally aroused his not very placable temper. He sat down 
to watch, resolved to give the first boy who should come, a terri- 
ble thrashing. A little fellow who happened to be first was 
caught by the neck and shaken fiercely, but being convinced 
that he knew nothing of it, the teacher dropped him and waited 
for another. Each boy in turn was throttled and shaken, the 
two real offenders among the rest, but as all denied it, McNanly 
still waited for his victims. At length Phil. Sheridan came, 
somewhat late, as usual, and convinced that he had now the real 
culprit, McNanly made a dive for him ; the boy dodged and 
ran, and the teacher after him, bare headed and brandishing his 
stick. Phil did his best, but his legs were short, and when he 
reached his father's yard McNanly was almost upon him, -iud 



LIEUTENAXT-GEXERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 115 

he bolted tlirougL the gate, the teacher following at full speed, 
when a new ally suddenly came to Phil's relief. This was no 
other than a large Newfoundland dog, the boy's playmate and 
pet, who seeing his young master in trouble, sprang upon tho 
teacher, who, frightened sadly, climbed the nearest tree with 
great agility. " Take away your divilish dog," he cried, " or 
I'll bate the life out of ye." " Like to see you," said the boy, 
as he very coolly brought a bit of old carpet, threw it under the 
tree and ordered Kover to " watch him." The dog obeyed and 
Phil mounted the fence and looked, somewhat impudently, we 
fear, at his teacher, the whole school meantime being gathered 
close by to see the end. McNanly's clothing was none of the 
warmest, and his cold bath and violent exercise had thrown him 
into a violent perspiration, and he was now shivering with the 
cold. " What d'ye want to lick me for ?" queried Phil. " What 
did ye throw the wather on me for ?" asked the teacher ; " I 
didn't throw any wather on you," said the boy. " What did 
ye run so for, thin ?" " Cause I saw ye was going to lick me," 
said Phil. " Well, call off the dog." " Not till ye promise ye 
won't lick me. Watch him, Eover." This last order was given 
as the teacher was trying to get down, and the dog in response 
seized him by the leg. Mr. Sheridan now came out, and 
McNanly appealed to him, declaring that he must lick Phil, for 
the sake of the discipline of the school, for the boys were all 
laughing at him now. Mr. Sheridan called to the dog, but he 
would not move, and doubting perhaps whether Phil deserved 
a thrashing, he returned into the house. "You'd better prom- 
ise," said Phil, " for the dog won't mind anybody but me, and I 
can stay here all day." At length, nearly perished with the 
oold, McNanly promised that he wouldn't lick him that time^ and 
the boy, calling to Rover, allowed the master to descend. The 



116 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

subsequent whippings, Phil used to say, had interest added to 
them, orf account of this. 

Sheridan was fond of mathematics, and managed to pick up a 
fair knowledge of figures in school. At the age of about fifteen 
he was taken as a clerk by Mr. Talbot, a hardware dealer of the 
village^ who, finding him active, intelligent, and faithful, gave 
him further instruction in mathematics and guided him in his 
reading. After a time, as a better position ofiered, he helped 
him to get it, and he became a clerk for Mr. Henry Detton. 
Not long after, General Thomas Eitchey was the Congressman 
from the district, and had in his gift an appointment to a vacancy 
at West Point. For this place there was a strong competition. 
Sons of wealthy parents came, or sent to him their applications 
with a long list of influential names. At length one letter came 
without recommendations or references. It merely asked that 
the place might be given to the writer and was signed, " Phil 
Sheridan." General Eitchey, who had known the boy for a 
long time and had marked his faithfulness and love of study, 
gave him the appointment at once. 

Sheridan was at this time (1848), seventeen years old. Among 
his classmates were James B. McPherson, Schofleld, Sill, Tyler^j 
and the rebel General Hood. His scholarship at West Point 
was above mediocrity, but his animal spirits were so constantly 
running over, and his pugnacity was so much in the ascendancy, 
that he was always receiving demerit marks in the conduct 
column. One of the cadets insulted him, and he proceeded to 
redress his own grievances, by giving the offender a severe 
thrashing. This conduct, some of the officers of the academy 
believed justifiable, but it was unrailitary, and, as a result, 
Sheridan was suspended and thrown iftto the class below, so 
that he did not graduate till 1853, when he stood thirty-fourth 
in a class of fifty-two. He was ordered to duty as brevet second 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 117 

lieuteaaat of infantry, but at first without being assigned to any 
particular regiment, and after serving in garrison at.Newport 
barracks, Kentucky, for a few months, was sent in the begin- 
hing of 1854, to the Texas frontier, where for nearly two years, 
he served at Fort Duncan, La Pena, and Turkey creek, Texas. 
He received his commission as full second lieutenant, while in 
Texas, November 22d, 1854. Returning east, after a short 
period of garrison duty at Fort Columbus, New York, he was 
ordered to escort duty from Sacramento, California, to Colum- 
bia river, Oregon, and then on a series of expeditions among 
the Indians, for a year. He was next assigned to the military 
posts at Forts Ilaskius and Yamhill, where he endeavored to 
make peace with the Indians, learned their dialects, and won 
their regard to such an extent that he could acoomplish wliat 
he pleased with them. On the 1st of March, 1861, he was pro- 
moted to a first lieutenancy in the fourth infantry, and ten 
weeks later, May 14th, a commission was sent him as captain 
in the thirteenth infantry, and with it, news of the impending 
war. He was ready for it, and wrote to a friend in the East: 
" If they will fight us, let them know we accept the challenge. 
Vf ho knows? Perhaps I may have a chance to raise a majcjr'a 
commission." A modest ambition, certainly for the man who 
vrithin four years was to demonstiate his title to be regarded as 
the ablest living cavalrj^ general. He was ordered to report 
at Jefferson barracks, Missouri. He arrived in the midst of the 
confusion that followed the removal of Fremont from command. 
Nothing could be a more droll illustration of the frequent 
governmental faculty for getting the wrong men in the right 
places than the assignment that awaited the j^oung Indian 
fighter. He was made president of a board to audit claims 
under the Fremont administration. He did the work satisfac- 
torily, however ; and presently the Govenxmeut, fully satisfied 



118 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

now, that here was a good man for routine and clerical duties, 
made him quartermaster and commissary for Curtis, at the 
outset of the Pea Ridge campaign. 

All this seemed rapid promotion to Captain Sheridan, and 
he went to work heartily and earnestly to make a quartermas- 
ter of" himself. He was sixty-fourth captain on the list — so onu 
of the staff officers tells of his reasoning in those days — and 
with the chances of war in his favor, it needn't be a very great 
while before he might hope to be a major ! With such modest 
aspirations he worked away at the wagon-trains ; cut down 
regimental transportation, gave fewer wagons for camp furni- 
ture and more for hard bread and fixed ammunition, established 
secondary depots for supplies, and wiih all his labor found that 
he had not fully estimated the wants of the army. Some 
orders from General Curtis about this time seemed to him 
inconsistent with the West Point system of managing quarter- 
masters' matters, and he said so, officially, with considerable 
freedom of utterance. The matter was passed over for a few 
days, but as soon as Pea Ridge was fought. General Curtis 
found time to attend to smaller affairs. The first was to 
dispense with the further services of his quartermaster, and 
send hira back to St. Louis in arrest. 

But, just then, educated officers were too rare in Missouri to be 
kept long out of service on punctilios. Presently the affair 
with Curtis was adjusted, and then the Government had some 
fresh work for this young man of routine and business. It 
sent him over into Wisconsin to buy horses! The weeping 
philosopher himself might have been embarrassed to refrain 
from laughter! McClellan was at the head of the army; 
Halleck had chief command in the west ; men like McClernand 
and Banks, Crittenden and McCook, were commanding divisions 
or corps ; and for Cavalry Sheridan the best work the Govern- 



LTEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAlsr. 119 

ment could find was — buying horses in Wisconsin! Then 
came Pittsburg Landing, and Halleck's hurried departure 
for the field. Wishing a body of instructed regular officers 
about him, he thought, among others, of Curtis's old quarter- 
master, and ordered him up to the army before Corinth, Then 
followed a little staff service, and at last, in May, 1862, the 
future head of the cavalry got started on his proper career. 
Watching wagon-trains, disputing with the lawyers about doubt- 
ful contractor's claims, or with the jockeys about the worth 
of horses — all this seems now very unworthy of Sheridan, but 
it was a part of his education for the place he was to fill; 
and we shall see that the familiarity thus acquired with the 
details of . supplying an army were to prove of service to one 
whose business was to be to command armies, and to tax the 
energies of those who supplied them to the utmost,' 

There was need of a good cavalry force, and chiefly of good 
cavalry officers, men who understood their duties and could 
train a cavalry force to act with precision as well as dash, and 
not to fire once and run away. Our young Indian fighter was 
thought of; he had done good service in Oregon, and indeed 
everywhere else, and it was possible that he might know how 
to handle cavalry. So, at a venture, on the 27th, of May, he 
was commissioned colonel of the second regiment of Michigan 
volunteer cavalry, and sent immediately on the expedition to 
cut the railroad south of Corinth, This accomplished, on his 
return he was immediately sent in pursuit of the rebels, who 
were retreating from Corinth, and captured and brought off the 
guns of Powell's rebel battery. On the 6th of June, leading a 
cavalry reconnoissance below Boonesville, he met and signally 
defeated a body of rebel cavalry commanded by General For- 
rest; and on the 8th, started in pursuit of the enemy, drove 
them through Baldwin and to Guntown, where, though tbeir 



120 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

force was much larger than his own, he defeated them, but 
under orders from headquarters fell back to Boonesville and 
thence to Corinth. 

On the 11th of June he was put in command of a cavalry 
brigade, and on the 26th, ordered to take his position at Boone- 
ville, twenty miles in advance of the main army, whose front he 
was to cover while at the same time he watched the operations 
of the rebels, llis brigade numbered less than two thousand 
men. 

On the 1st of July 1862, he was attacked at Booneville by a 
rebel force of nine regiments (about six thousand men), under 
command of General Chalmers, Sheridan slowly retreated 
toward his camp, which was situated on the edge of a swamp, 
in an advantageous position, where he could not be flanked, and 
here he kept up the unequal fight, but finding that Chalmers, 
with his greatly superior numbers, would in the end surround 
and overpower him, he had recourse to strategy. Selecting 
ninety of his best men, armed with revolving carbines and 
sabres, he sent them around to the rear of the enemy by a 
detour of about four miles, with orders to attack promptly and 
vigorously at a certain time, while he would make a simultane- 
ous charge in front. The plan proved a complete success. The 
ninety men appeared suddenly in the enemy's rear, not having 
been seen till they were near enough to fire their carbines, and, 
having emptied these, they rushed with drawn sabres upon the 
enemy, who, supposing them to be the advance guard of a large 
force, were thrown into disorder ; and, before they had time to 
recover, Sheridan charged them in front with such fury that 
they fled from the field in complete disorder, utterly routed. 
Sheridan pursued, and they continued their flight, utterly panic- 
stricken, to Knight's mills, twenty miles south from Boone- 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 121 

ville, throwing away their arms, knapsacks, coats, and every 
thing which could impede their flight. 

General Grant reported this brilliant affair to the War De- 
partment, with a recommendation that Colonel Sheridan should 
be promoted. This recommendation was granted, and his com- 
mission of brigadier-general bore date July 1, 1862. 

At this time, the rebels in his front had but one stream 
(Twenty Mile creek) from which to water their live-stock, and 
from his post at Boone ville, General Sheridan frequently made 
sudden dashes in that direction, and captured large quantities 
of their stock, often two or three hundred at a time. In August, 
1862, he was attacked by a rebel cavalry force, under Colonel 
Faulkner, near Eienzi, Mississippi, but after a sharp engage- 
ment the rebels were defeated, and retreated in haste, Sheridan 
pursuing them to near Ripley, and, charging upon them before 
they could reach their main column, dispersed the whole force, 
and captured a large number of prisoners. Early in Septem- 
ber, 1862, General Grant having ascertained that the rebel Gen- 
eral Bragg was moving towards Kentucky, detached a portion 
of his own forces to reinforce the Army of the Ohio, then under 
command of General Buell. Among these were General Sheri- 
dan, and his old command, the second Michigan cavalry. As 
General Grant expected. General Buell gave Sheridan a larger 
command, assigning him to the charge of the third division of 
the Army of the Ohio. He assumed command of this division 
on the 2<)th of September, 1862. At this time. General Bragg 
was approaching Louisville, which was not in a good condition 
for defence, and General Sheridan was charged with the duty of 
defending it. In a single night, with the division under his 
command, he constructed a strong line of rifle-pits from the rail- 
road depot to the vicinity of Portland, and thus secured the city 
against the danger of surprise. On the 25th of September, 



122 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

General Buell arrived at Louisville, and soon commenced a re- 
organization of the Army of the Ohio, now largely reinforced. 
In this re-organization, General Sheridan was placed in command 
of the eleventh division, and entered upon his duties on the 1st 
of October. 

Buell soon took the offensive again, and began pushing the re- 
bels, who had already commenced a retreat, but were embarrassed 
by the amount of plunder they had collected. On the 8th of Octo- 
ber, the rebels made a stand near Perryville, Kentucky, for the 
double purpose of checking the pursuit, and allowing their trains 
to move forward out of harm's way. The battle which followed, 
though a severe one, was not decisive, owing to some defects in 
the handling of the forces, and Bragg was allowed to make good 
his retreat with most of his plunder, and with but moderate 
loss : but in it, Sheridan played a distinguished part, holding 
the key of the Union position, and resisting the onsets of the 
enemy, again and again, with great bravery and skill, driving 
them at last from the open ground in front, by a bayonet charge. 
This accomplished, he saw that they were gaining advaniage on 
the left of the Union line, and moving forward his artillery, 
directed so terrible a fire upon the rebel advance, that he drove 
them from the open ground on which they had taken position. 
Enraged at being thus foiled, they charged with great fury upon 
his lines, determined to carry the point at ail hazards ; but, with 
the utmost coolness, ho opened upon them at short range, with 
such a murderous fire of grape and canister, that the}- fell back 
in great disorder, leaving their dead and wounded in winrows 
in front of the batteries. The loss in Sheridan's division in 
killed and wounded, was over four hundred, but his generalship 
had saved the Union army from defeat. On the 30th of (.)cta. 
ber, General Eosecrans succeeded General Buell as commander 
of the Army of the Ohio, which, with enlarged territory, was 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 



123 



thenceforward to be known as the Army of the Ouiiibcrhind, 
and in the re-organization, General Sheridan was assigned 
to the command of one of the divisions of McCook's corps, 
which constituted the right wing of that army. He remained 
for the next seven or eight weeks in the vicinity of Nashville, 
and then moved with his corps, on the 26th of December, 1862, 
toward Murfreesboro. During the 26th, his division met the 
enemy on the Nolensville road, and skirmished with them to 
Nolensville and Knob gap, occupying at night the latter import- 
ant position. The next morning a dense fog obscured the hori- 
zon; but as soon as it lifted, Sheridan pressed forward, and 
drove the enemy from the village of Triune, which he occupied. 

The next three days were spent in skirmishing, and in gra- 
dually drawing nearer, over the almost impassable roads, to 
Murfreesboro, the goal of their hopes. At length, on the 
night of the 30th of December, the army was drawn up in 
battle array, on the banks of Stone river. 

" The men bivouacked in line of battle. They were to wake 
to great calamity and great glory in the morning. 

"In the general plan of the battle of Stone river, the part 
assigned to the right wing, was to hold the enemy, while the 
rest of the army swung through Murfreesboro, upon his rear. 
In this right wing Sheridan held the left. Elsewhere along that 
ill-formed line were batteries, to which the horses had not been 
harnessed when the fateful attack burst through the gray dawn 
upon them. But there was one division commander who, with 
or without orders thereto, might be trusted for ample vigilance 
in the face of an enemy. At two in the morning, he was 
moving some of his regiments to strengthen a portion of his 
line, on which he thought the enemy was massing. At four he 
mustered his division under arms, and had every cannoneer at 
his post. For over two hours they waited. When the onset 



121 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

came, tlie ready batteries opened at once. The rebels contiuuod 
to sweep up. At fifty yards' distance the volleys of Sheridan's 
musketry became too murderous. The enemy, in massed regi- 
ments, hesitated, wavered, and finally broke. Sheridan instantly 
sent Sill's brigade to charge upon the retreating column. The 
movement was brilliantly executed, but the life of the gallant 
brigade commander went out in the charge. 

" Presently the enemy rallied and returned. Already the 
rest of the wing had been hurled back in confusion ; the weight 
of the victorious foe bore down upon Sheridan's exposed flank 
and broke it. There was now come upon Sheridan, that same 
stress of battle under which his companion division commanders 
had been crushed. But hastily drawing back the broken flank, 
he changed the front of his line to meet the new danger, and 
ordered a brigade to charge ; while under cover of this daring 
onset, the new line was made compact. Here Sheridan felt 
abundantly able to hold his ground. 

" But his flank ? The routed divisions, which should 

have formed upon it, were still in hasty retreat. He dashed 
among them — threatened, begged, swore. All was in vain; 
they would not re-form. Sheridan was isolated, and his right 
once more turned. Moving then by the left, he rapidly ad- 
vanced, driving the enemy from his front, and maintaining his 
line unbroken till he secured a connection on the left with 
Negley. Here he was instantly and tremendously assailed. 
The attack was repulsed. Again Cheatham's rebel division at- 
tacked, and again it was driven back. Once again the baffled 
enemy swept up to the onset, till his batteries were planted 
within two hundred yards of Sheridan's lines. The men stood 
firm. Another of the brigade commanders fell • but the enemy 
was once more driven. Thus heroically did Sheridan strive to 
beat back the swift disaster that had befallen the risht. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 125 

"But now came tlie crowning misfortune. When the rest of 
McCook's wing had been swept out of the contest, the ammuni- 
tion train had fallen into the hands of the enemy. With the 
overwhelming force on his front, with the batteries playing at 
short range, with the third rebel onslaught just repulsed, and 
the men momentarily growing more confident of themselves 
and of their fiery commander, there suddenly came the startling 
cry that the ammunition was exhausted I ' Fix bayonets, then !' 
was the ringing command. Under cover of the bristling linea 
of steel on the front, the brigades were rapidly withdrawn. 
Presently a couple of regiments fell upon an abandoned ammu- 
nition wagon. For a moment they swarmed around it — then 
back on the double quick to the front, to aid in the retreat of 
the artillery. One battery was lost, the rest, with only a miss- 
ing piece or two, were brought off. Thus riddled and depleted, 
with fifteen hundred from the little division left dead or wound- 
ed in the dark cedars, but with compact ranks and a steady 
front, the heroic column came out on the Murfreesboro turn- 
pike, ' Here is all that is left of us,* said Sheridan, riding up 
to Eosecrans to report, ' Our cartridge-boxes are empty, and 
80 are our muskets !' 

" Thus the right, on which the battle was to have hinged, 
had disappeared from the struggle. Already the enemy, press- 
ing his advantage to the utmost, seemed about to break through 
the centre ; and Sheridan, supplied with ammunition, was or- 
dered in to its relief. He checked the rebel advance, charged at 
one point, and captured guns and prisoners, held his line steady 
throughout, and bivouacked upon it at nightfall. This final 
struggle cost him his last brigade commander !"* 

General Eosecrans, in his report of this battle, pays the fol- 
lowing high compliment to Sheridan's generalship : " Sheridan, 

• Mr. Whitelaw Reid's sketch of Sheridan in his " Ohio in the War." 



126 ii-Rs OF OUR PAY. 

after sustaining /ij/r successive attacks, gradually swung liia right 
round southeasterly to a northwestern direction, re.p%ilsing the 
enemy fonr times, losing the gallant General Sill of his right, 
and Colonel lioborts of his left brigade; when, having ex 
hausted his aninmnition, Negley's division being in the same 
predicament, and hoavil}'' pressed, after desperate fighting they 
fell back from the position held at the commencement, through 
the cedar woods, in which Rousseau's division, with a portion 
of Negley's and Sheridan's, met the advancing enemy and 
checked his movements." 

For liis gallantry in this battle, General Rosecrans suggested, 
and the President recommended, Sheridan's promotion to the 
rank of major-general of volunteers, his commission to date 
from December 31st, 1862. He was at once confirmed by the 
Senate. 

In the months that followed the battle of Stone river, months 
of watching and waiting, Sheridan kept himself busy, and en- 
joying the confidence of the commanding general, who did not, 
however, fully appreciate his talents, he and his division found 
constant employment. The country about Murfreesboro was 
thoroughly seoured, and all its strategic points caiofully mapped 
in the mind of the cavalry general. On the od of march, he 
flung himself and his division upon the rebel General Van Dorn, 
who had penetrated as far as Shelbyville, Tennessee, m an ad- 
vance upon the Union lines, hurled him back, pursued him to 
Columbia and Franklin, and near Eagleville, Tennessee, cap- 
tured his train and a large number of prisoners. In the ad- 
vance on Tullahoma, June 24 to July 4, 1863, he drove the 
rebels out of Liberty Gap, a strong mountain pass, which was 
one of the keys of their position, occupied Shelbyville, pushed 
forward to, and took possession of Winchester, Tennessee, 
which by a flank, movement, he had compelled the enemy to 



LIEUTEN^VXT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 127 

abandon, and saved the great bridge over the Tennessee at 
iiridgeport, his infantry outstripping Stanley's cavalry, which 
they were ordered to support. 

The Tennessee crossed, Chattanooga flanked by Rosecrans, and 
evacuated by Bragg, General Sheridan was sent to reconnoitre 
the enemy's force and position, and found him largely reinforced 
and determined to push Rosecrans to the wall and recover 
Chattanooga. Then came Chickamauga, the severe bat wholly 
indecisive battle of the first day, in which, however, Sheridan, 
by his promptness and activity, did good service, and the disas- 
trous fight of the second day, which yet, thanks to General 
Thomas's firmness and superb generalship, was not wholly a 
defeat. In- this severe action, McCook's and Crittenden's corps 
and the general commanding the army were, by the fatal mis- 
understanding of an order, cut off from the remainder of the 
army, and compelled to fall back upon Rossville, and Chatta- 
nooga. Sheridan, whose division was still a part of McCook's 
coips, though involved in this disaster, succeeded, by the utmost 
effort, in rallying the greater part of his command and bringing 
it through by-roads from Rossville to join General Thomas, 
who had fought and repulsed the enemy. .He was not in season, 
much to his mortification, to participate in the closing hours of 
the fight, but he nevertheless strengthened materially the handa 
of the general. 

The corps of McCook and Crittenden were now consolidated 
into one (the fourth) corps, and the command of it given to 
Gordon Granger, an officer only less incompetent than those 
whom he succeeded. Then came a change of commanders to the 
Army of the Cumberland ; General G. H. Thomas succeeded 
General Rosecrans, and the army of the Tennessee, and two 
corps from the Army of the Potomac, being added to the force, 
General Grant took charge of the whole. The battles of the 



128 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

WauhatcTiie, Lookout Mountain, and Mission Eidge, and the 
expulsion of the rebels from the vallej'-s of Chattanooga and 
Chickamauga followed. In the capture of Orchard Knob, and 
in that most brilliant episode of the war, the ascent of Mission 
Eidge, Sheridan bore a conspicuous part. The fourth corps 
(Granger's) were the charging column, and stung by the 
recollection of that sad day at Chickamauga, as the six guns 
gave the signal for advance, Sheridan rode along his column, 
and called in thunder tones to his division, " Show the fourt'i 
corps that the men of the old twentieth are still alive, and can 
fight. Eemember Chickamauga !" 

Before Sheridan and the companion divisions stretched an 
open space of a mile and an eighth to the enemy's first line of 
rifle-pits. Above this frowned a steep ascent of five hundred 
yards, up which it scai'cely seemed possible that unresisted troops 
could clamber. At the summit were fresh rifle-pits. As 
Sheridan rode along his front and reconnoitered the rebel pits 
at the base of the ridge, it seemed to him that, even if captured, 
they could scarcely be tenable under the plunging fire that 
might then be directed from the summit. He accordingly sent 
back a staff-officer to inquire if the order was to take the rifle- 
pits or to take the ridge. But before there was time for an 
answer, the six guns thundered out their stormy signal, and the 
whole line rose up and leaped forward. The plain was swept 
by a tornado of shot and shell, but the men rushed on at the 
double-quick, swarmed over the rifle-pits, and flung themselves 
down on the face of tlie mountain. Just then the answer to 
Sheridan's message came. It was only this first line of rifle- 
pits that was to be carried. Some of the men were accordingly 
retired to it by their brigade commander, under the heavy fire 
of grape, canister, and musketry. "But," said Sheridan, 
** believing that the attack had assumed a new phase, and that I 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN". 129 

could carry the ridge, I could not order those ofTicers aid men 
who wore so gallantly ascending the hill, step by step, to return.* 
As the twelve regimental colors slowly went up, one advancing 
a little, the rest pushing forward, emulous to be even with it, 
till all were planted midway up the ascent on a partial line of 
rifle-pits that nearly covered Sheridan's front, an order cam© 
from Granger: "If in your judgment the ridge can be taken, 
do so." An ej^e-witness shall tell us how he received it.* 
"An aid rides up with the order; 'Avery, that flask,' .-aid the 
general. Quietl}'" filling the pewter cup, Sheridan looks up at 
the battery that frowned above him, by Bragg's headquarters, 
shakes his cap amid that storm of every thing that kills, where 
you could hardly hold your hand without catching a bullet in 
it, and, with a 'How are you?' tosses off" the cup. The blue 
battle-flag of the rebels fluttered a response to the cool salute, 
and the next instant the battery let fly its six guns, showering 
Sheridan with earth. The general said in his quiet way, ' I 

thought it d d ungenerous !' The recording angel will drop a 

tear upon tlie word for the part he played that day. Wheeling 
toward the men he cheered them to the charge, and made at the 
hill like a bold-riding hunter. They were out of the rifle-pits 
and into the tempest, and struggling up the steep before you 
could get breath to tell it." 

Then came what the same writer has called the torrid zone 
of the battle. Rocks were rolled down from aVjove on the 
advancing line ; shells with lighted fuses were rolled down ; 
guns were loaded with handfuls of cartridges and fired down, 
but the line struggled on: still fluttered the twelve regimental 
flags in the advance. At last, with a leap and a rush, over 
they went — all twelve fluttered on the crest — the rebels were 

* B. F. Taylor, of the Chicago Journal. 



130 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

bayoneted out of tlieir rifle-pits — the guns were turned — the 
ridge was won. In this last spasm of the struggle Sheridan s 
horse was shot under him. He sprang upon a captured gun, to 
raise his short person high enough to be visible in the half- 
ci'azy throng, and ordered a pursuit I It harassed the enemy 
for some miles, and brought back eleven guns as proofs of its 
vigor. 

Signal as had been Sheridan's previous services, he had 
never before been so brilliantly conspicuous. In other battles 
he had approved himself a good officer in the eyes of his superi- 
ors ; on the deathly front of Mission Ridge he flamed out the 
incarnation of soldierly valor and vigor in the eyes of the whole 
American people. Ilis entire losses were thirteen hundred and 
four, and he took seventeen hundred and sixty-two prisoners. 
But these figures give no adequate idea of the conflict. It may 
be better understood from the simple statement that in that 
brief contest, in a part of a winter afternoon, he lost one hun 
dred and twenty-three of&cers from that single division — a num- 
ber greater than the whole French army lost at Soli'crino 1 
Through his own clothes five miuie balls had passed ; his horse 
had been shot under him ; and yet he had come out without a 
scratch. 

For a short time longer he was employed in East Tennessee 
in driving out the rebels who still found a lodgment there, but 
when General Grant was advanced to the lieutenant general- 
ship, one of his first acts was to apply to the War Department 
for tnc transfer of General Philip H. Sheridan to the eastern 
army, and when he was arrived, to make him the commander 
of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. Ilere he 
was in the sphere for which he had longed, and for which he 
was undoubtedly best fitted. But the cavalry of the Army of 
the Potomac was far from being in a model condition. The 



LIEUTEN'ANT-GEN'ERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 131 

days of the old service of cavalry, the heavy and light horse, the 
grand cavalry charges, and the chivalry of mounted troops 
under perfect drill were gone ; rninie muskets and rifled cannon 
had changed all that. But with this there had gone also in 
great measure the esprit du corps of the service. The squadrons 
were detailed for picket service, for guarding trains, for duties 
which could better be performed by infantry, and when they 
fought, they charged upon infantry, and were shy of any attack 
upon the enemy's cavalry. Against all this Sheridan protested, 
and with good effect. lie procured their release from picket 
and train duty, he trained his men to care tenderly for their 
horses, which up to this time had been broken down with 
frightful rapidity, in consequence of the ignorance, heedlessness 
and indifference of their riders ; he drilled them in all the ser- 
vice of cavalry and infused into them a portion of his own fiery 
spirit, and that joy in the fight, which marks the true cavalry 
soldier. 

From the 5th of May, 1864, to the 9th of April, 1865, Sheri- 
dan's command were engaged in seventy-six distinct battles, 
all but thirteen of them under his own eye and order. At the 
close of the campaign he could say, with a commendable pride 
in the achievements of his men, though always modest in regard 
to his own deeds, " "We sent to the War Department (between 
the dates above specified) two hundred and five battle flags, 
captured in open field fighting — nearly as many as all the 
armies of the United States combined sent there during the 
rebellion. The number of field pieces captured in the same 
period was between one hundred and sixty and one hundred 
and seventy, all in open field fighting.* * *We led the advance 
of the army to the "Wilderness; on the Richmond raid we 
marked out its line of march to the North Anna, where we 
found it on our return ; we again led its advance to Hanover- 



132 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

town, and tlien to Gold Harbor; we removed the enemy's 
cavalry from the south side of the Chickahominy by the Tre- 
villian raid, and thereby materially assisted the army in ita 
Buccessfal march to the James river and Petersburg, where it 
remained until we made the campaign in the valley ; w© 
marched back to Petersburg, again took the advance and led 
the army to victory. In all these operations, the percentage of 
cavalry casualties was as great as that of the infantry, and the 
question which had existed — ' who ever saw a dead cavalry- 
man ?' was set at rest." 

Of the many remarkable actions hinted at in these pregnant 
sentences, we have space only to allude to two or three. His 
first raid toward Richmond was one of the most daring and 
successful of the war. He penetrated the outer line of defences 
of that city ; bewildered and confounded the rebels by his au- 
dacity, fought two battles to extricate himself from his apparent- 
ly critical position, in one of which General J. E. B. Stuart, the 
ablest cavalry officer of the rebels, was slain ; defeated the 
enemy in both battles, built a bridge across the Chickahominy 
under fire, and finally returned to the Army of the Potomac 
after sixteen days with but slight loss, after inflicting serious 
and permanent inj ury upon the enemy. His second raid, under- 
taken to co-operate with Hunter in the valley of Virginia was 
less successful, owing to the utter failure of that officer's plans, 
but it kept the rebel cavalry out of the way of the Union army 
in crossing the James. On his return, he guarded the vast train 
of the Army of the Potomac (an irksome task to him), to and 
across the James, not without some sharp battles; made some 
raids south of the James, and took an active part in the feint 
at the north side of the James, in the last days of July. Appoint- 
ed to the command of the Army of the Shenandoah, in August, 
he exhibited such ability in handling his troops, such alternate 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 1^3 

caution and daring in liis manoeuvring witli Early, that tha 
confidence of the nation was soon reposed in him. That that 
confidence was not misplaced, he speedily gave decisive evidence. 

On the 19th of September, after a fierce and stubborn fight at 
Opequan creek, he had defeated and routed Early, and as ha 
expressed it, " sent him whirling through Winchester," follow- 
ing him relentlessly to his defences at Fisher's Hill, thirty milea 
below, killing in the battle and retreat, three, and wounding 
severely four more of his ablest generals, among the latter 
Fitzhugh Lee, the commander of the rebel cavalry of the army 
of Virginia. With his usual celerity, and a strategic skill of 
which, hitherto, he had not displayed the possession, he proceed- 
ed to attack Early's stronghold, Fisher's Hill, which that general 
had believed perfectly impregnable, and, on the 22d, carried it 
by storm, attacking in front, in rear, and on the flank ; drove 
the rebels out and chased them without mercy till the 25th, 
driving them below Port Republic, at the extreme head of the 
valley. 

For this splendid series of victories, he was made a brigadier- 
g3neral in the regular army in place of the lamented McPher- 
s)n. Twice more beibre the 13th of October he had driven 
back Early or his lieutenants, who, loth to give up the valley 
of the Shenandoah, the garden of Virginia, had obtained rein- 
forcements and again essayed encounters with this western 
rough rider. At length, believing Early sufficiently^ punished 
to remain in obscurity for a time, Sheridan made a Hying visit 
to Washington, on matters connected with his department. 
Early was quickly apprised of his departure, and resolved to 
profit by it. Collecting further reinforcements, and creeping 
Btealthily up to the camp of the Union army at Cedar creek, 
eighteen or twenty miles below Winchester, the rebel soldiers 
being required to lay aside their canteens, lest the click of their 



134 



MEN OF OUR DAY. 



bayonets against them should apprize the Union troops of 
their approach, they reached and flanked Crooks' corps, which 
was in advance, at about day dawn. The Union troops were 
unpardonably careless, having no suspicion that the rebels 
were within twenty miles of them. They were consequently 
taken at unawares, and many of them bayonetted before they 
were fairly awake ; in a very few minutes they were forced 
back, disorganized, upon the nineteenth corps, who were en echelon 
beyond them ; they at first made a stand, but in a short time 
were forced back, though not completely disorganized ; and the 
sixth corps in turn were compelled to stand against heavy odds. 
In the end all were driven back three or four miles, to the 
Middletown plains, and the fugitives were carrying the news 
of a total defeat and rout at full speed toward Winchester. 
But deliverance was nearer than they thought. They had lost 
twenty-four guns and twelve hundred prisoners, but thty were 
beginning to recover from their fright, and were re-organizing, 
while the rebels, hungry and thirsty, wayworn and in rags, were 
s-topping to plunder the camp. Still they would hardly have 
regained any portion of their lost territory and might have fallen 
back to Winchester, had not Sheridan, just at this juncture, 
appeared riding at full speed among them. He had heard the 
firing at Winchester, where he arrived late the night before, 
and at first was not alarmed by it, but, coming out of Winches- 
ter, he was met by some of the foremost of the fugitives, a mile 
from the town. 

" He instantly gave orders to park the retreating trains on 
either side of the road, directed the greater part of his escort 
to follow as best they could ; then, with only twenty cavalrymen 
accompanying him, he struck out in a swinging g.'illop for the 
scene of danger. As he dashed up the pike, the crowds of 
stragglers grew thicker. He reproached none; only, swinging 



LIEUTENANT-GEXERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 135 

his cap, with a cheery smile for all, he shouted : ' Face the other 
way, boys, face the other way. We are going back to our 
camps. We are going to lick them out of their boots.' Less 
classic, doubtless, than Napoleon's ' My children, we will camp 
on the battle-field, as usual ;' but the wounded raised their 
hoarse voices to cheer as he passed, and the masses of fugitives 
turned and followed him to the front. As he rode into the 
forming lines, the men quickened their pace back to the ranks, 
and everj'^where glad cheers went up. ' Boys, this never should 
have happened if I had been here,' he exclaimed to one and 
another regiment. ' I tell you it never should have happened. 
And now we are going back to our camps. We are going to 
get a twist on them ; we'll get the tightest twist on them yet 
that ever you saw. We'll have all those camps and cannon 
back again !' Thus he rode along the lines, rectified the forma- 
tion, cheered and animated the soldiers. Presently there grew 
up across that pike as compact a body of infantry and cavalry 
as that which, a month before, had sent the enemy ' whirling 
through Winchester.' His men had full faith in 'the twist' he 
was ' going to get' on the victorious foe ; his presence was inspi- 
ration, his commands were victory. 

" While the line was thus re-established, he was in momentary 
expectation of attack. Wright's sixth corps was some distance 
in the rear. One staff officer after another was sent after it. 
Finally, Sheridan himself dashed down to hurry it up : then 
back to watch it going into position. As he thus stood, looking 
off from the left, he saw the enemy's columns once more moving 
up. Hurried warning was sent to the nineteenth corps, on which 
it was evident the attack would fall. By this time it was after 
three o'clock. > 

" The nineteenth corps, no longer taken by surprise, repulsed 
the enemy's onset. ' Thank God for that,' said Sheridan, gaily. 



136 ' MEN OF OUR DAY. 

' Now tell General Emory, if they attack him again, to go after 
them, and to follow them up. We'll get the tightest twist on 
them pretty soon they ever saw.' The men heard and believed 
him ; the demoralization of the defeat was gone. But he still 
waited. Word had been sent in from the cavalry, of danger 
from a heavy body moving on his flank. He doubted it, and 
at last determined to run the risk. At four o'clock the orders 
went out : ' The whole line will advance. The nineteenth corps 
will move in connection with the sixth. The right of the nine- 
teenth will swing toward the left.' 

"The enemy lay behind stone fences, and where these failed, 
breastworks of rails eked out his line. For a little, he held his 
position firmly. His left overlapped Sheridan's right, and see- 
ing this advantage, he bent it down to renew the attack in 
flank. At this critical moment, Sheridan ordered a charge of 
General Mc Williams' brigade against the angle thus caused in 
the rebel line. It forced its way through, and the rebel flank- 
ing party was cut off. Custer's cavalry was sent swooping down 
upon it — it broke, and fled, or surrendered, according to the 
agility of the individuals. Simultaneously the whole line 
charged along the front ; the rebel line was crowded back to 
the creek ; the difficulties of the crossing embarrassed it, and 
as the victorious ranks swept up, it broke in utter confusion, 

" Custer charged down in the fast gathering darkness, to the 
west of the pike ; Devin to the east of it ; and on either flank 
of the fleeing rout they flung themselves. Nearly all the rebel 
transportation was captured, the camps and artillery were re- 
gained ; up to Fisher's Hill the road was jammed with artillery, 
caissons, and ambulances; prisoners came streaming back faster 
than the provost marshal could provide for them. It was the 
end of Early's army ; the end of campaigning in the beautiful 
valley of the Shenandoah." 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 137 

The twenty-four cannon lost in the morning were retaken, 
and besides them, twenty-eight more of Early's. Beside these, 
there were fifty wagons, sixty-five ambulances, sixteen hundred 
small arms, several battle flags, fifteen hundred prisoners, and 
two thousand killed and wounded left on the field. The Union 
losses were about thirty-eight hundred, of whom eight hundred 
were prisoners. 

In all the records of modern history, there are but three ex- 
amples of such a battle, lost and won on the same field, and in 
the same conflict — Marengo, Shiloh, and Stone River; and in 
the two former the retrieval was due mainly to reinforcements 
brought up at the critical time, while the third was not ao 
immediately decisive ; but here, the only reinforcement which 
the army of the Shenandoah received or needed to recover its 
lost field of battle, camps, intrenchments, and cannon, was one 
man — Sheridan. 

General Grant, on the receipt of the news of the battle, tele- 
graphed to Secretary Stanton : " I had a salute of one hundred 
guns fired from each of the armies here, in honor of Sheridan's 
last victory. Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into a glori- 
ous victory, stamps Shtridan, what I have always thought him, one 
of the ablest of generals.''^ General Sheridan also received an 
autograph letter of thanks from the President, and on the 14th 
of November, he was promoted to the major- generalship in thfl 
regular army, vacated by General McClellan's resignation. 

For six weeks following, there were occasional skirmishes 
with small bands of regular cavalry, the dehj-is of Early's army, 
but this was all. In December, the sixth army corps returned 
to the Army of the Potomac, and Sheridan, for two months, 
recruited and rested his cavalry, using it only as an army of 
observation. About the first of March, with a force of about 
9,000 men, well mounted and disciplined, he m .ved forward 



138 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

andcr instructions from General Grant, to destroy the Virginia 
Central railroad, and the James River canal, the two arteries of 
supply for the rebels at Richmond and Petersburg, and then 
strike at, anil if possible, capture Lynchburg, and either join 
Sherman at Goldsboro, or returning to Winchester, descend 
thence to City Point. The destruction of the railroad and canal 
were thoroughly performed, but, delayed by heavy rains, he 
found that Lynchburg was probably too strong to be attacked, 
and as every route of communication between that city and 
Richmond was broken, its garrison could not render any assist- 
ance either to Lee or Johnston. He had captured Early's 
remaining force of 1,600 men at Waynesboro; and now, instead 
of returning to Winchester, or going on to join Sherman, he 
resolved to march past Richmond, to join the Army of the Poto- 
mac. The resolve was a bold one, for he knew Longstreet was 
on the watch for him, and would show him no mercy, if ho 
could have a fair opportunity of attacking him. Nevertheless, 
lie made the march, fooled Longstreet, and arrived safely at 
City Point, having completely desolated the country through 
which ho }Kissed, and destroyed property, estimated by the 
rebels themselves, at over $50,000,000. 

And now came the end of the war, and in its closing scenes, 
so far as the rebel army of Northern Virginia was concerned, 
Sheridan had the most conspicuous part. Arriving at City 
Point on tlie 2,"')th of ^[arch, 1865, he was directed by General 
Grant to niDve, on the 2yth, southwestward by way of Reams' 
station to Dinwiddle Court-house, and from thence either strike 
the Southside railroad at Burkesville station, some forty milea 
distant ; or, if it should seem best, support the infmtry, one or 
two corps of which should, in that case, be put under his com- 
mand, in an attempt, by way of Halifixx road, to cross Hatcher's 
run at the point which had been held since February. Ue 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 139 

chose, after reconnoissance, the latter plan, and pushed on towaru 
Dinwiddle, and connected with the left of the fifth corps, on the 
Boydton road. The enemy were found strongly intrenched at 
Five Forks, about six miles west of the Boydton plank-road, 
and also held in some force the White Oak road, by which the 
Five Forks were approached from the east. On the 31st of 
March there was heavy fighting all along the line. The fifth 
corps, or rather two divisions of it, were driven back in some 
disorder on the White Oak road, and a part of Sheridan's cav- 
alry were separated from the main body, and his whole force 
imperilled. By dismounting his cavalry in front of Dinwiddle 
Court-house, and fighting desperately till late at night, he suc- 
ceeded in holding his position, and the two contending forces 
lay on their arms through the night. The next morning, April 
1st, the fifth corps, now under his command, did not advance as 
he expected, and his enemy of the night before having retreated 
to Five Forks, he followed, and finding the fifth corps, directed 
them to assault when he gave the order, and completed his 
arrangements for carrying Five Forks by a simultaneous assault 
in front and on both flanks. In this assault the fifth corps par- 
ticipated. It was successful, after some hard fighting, and the 
rebel troops who were not either slain, wounded or prisoners, 
were driven off westward so far as to be unable to return to aid 
in the defence of Petersburg. Being dissatisfied, perhaps with- 
out quite sufficient cause, with the management of General G. 
K. Warren, the commander of the fifth corps, during the day, 
General Sheridan relieved him of his command, and ordered 
General Griffin to take his place. The two men were so unlike 
in their temperament and modes of thought, though both brave 
and patriotic officers, that they could hardly have been expected 
to work well together. 



140 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Sheridan followed up his successes the following day, by ham- 
mering the enemy's line along the Southside railroad, and an 
assault being made at the same time on the defences of Peters- 
burg, that city and Richmond were evacuated, and the rebel 
army fled along the route of the Southside railroad and the 
Appomattox river toward Appomattox Court-house, pursued 
relentlessly by Sheridan, who acted on the Donnybrook Fair 
principle, and whenever he saw a rebel head, hit it. There were 
some sharp actions, for the rebels were fighting in sheer despair ; 
but finding their trains captured and them.selves brought to bay, 
without hope, at Appomattox Court-house, they surrendered, 
and the war in Virginia was over. 

But not yet was our cavalry general to find rest. He was 
ordered at once to Texas, with a large force, to bring the rebels 
there, who still held out, to terms. E. Kirby Smith, the rebel 
commander of the Trans- Mississippi Department, surrendered 
about the time of his arrival, and, with his surrender, the war 
closed. On the 27th of June, 1865, General Sheridan was ap- 
pointed commander of the military Division of the Gulf, era- 
bracing the departments of Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
Texas. 

To preserve order in this division, so recently in rebellion, was 
a difficult task, the more difiicult because the acting President 
was not true to his pledges, but encouraged the rebels, who at 
first were disposed to yield, to raise their heads again in defiance. 
But General Sheridan proved himself the man for the occasion. 
lie was unfortunately absent in Texas when the riot and mas- 
sacre occurred in New Orleans, but his prompt and decided 
action in regard to it, his denunciation of the course of the 
mayor and police, even when he knew that they were in favor 
with the President, his removal of them from office, and with 
them of others who obstructed reconstruction, and the thorough 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 141 

loyalty be manifested all the way through, endeared hini greatly 
to the nation. In Texas, too, he had his troubles: a disloyal 
governor was placed in power by the abortive reconstruction 
plan of Mr. Johnson, and when Congress armed Sheridan with 
the needed power, he removed him as promptly as he had dune 
the rebel mayor and treacherous governor of Louisiana. 

There were border difficulties to encounter, also ; many of the 
rebel officers had escaped to Mexico, and most of them were in 
Maximilian's service. Like his chief — General Grant — General 
Sheridan's sympathies were wholly with the Juarez or Kepuli- 
lican party in Mexico ; but our relations with France were sue b 
that Ave could only give them our moral, not our military, suji- 
port. Demagogues of both the Republican and Imperial par- 
ties did their best to involve us in the imhroglio in some way, 
and one of Sheridan's subordinate commanders was so unwise 
as to cross the Rio Grande, at Matamoras, on the invitation of 
one of the guerrilla chiefs, and mingle in the fray. For this he 
was promptly removed from command, and General Sheridan 
exhibited so much prudence and discretion in the whole affair 
as to receive the approval of all parties. 

That Andrew Johnson should not be pleased with so straight- 
forward and loyal a commander was to be expected ; and not 
withstanding the earnest protest of General Grant, he removed 
him in August, 1867, from the command of the Fifth District, 
and ordered him to command on the plains, where he would 
have only Indians to contend with. Before proceeding to his 
new command, however, Major-General Sheridan, by permission 
of General Grant, visitt^d the East, and was everywhere received 
with ovations and honor by the people, who were duly mindful 
of his great services in war and peace. 

Returning in the summer of 1868 to his new command, one 
for which, from his thorough knowledge of the Indian ways 
and Indian languages, he was well adapted^ General Sheridan 



142 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

was successfal in averting a threatened Indian war, and in paci- 
fying the wily Sioux chiefs. Soon after the inauguration of 
President Grant, he was promoted to the Lieutenant-Generalship, 
at the same time that General Sherman succeeded to the Gene- 
ralship, lie was assigned to the command of the Military 
Division of the Missouri, embracing the Military Departments 
of Dakota, the Missouri, the Platte, and Texas, and having its 
headquarters first at St. Louis, and afterward at Chicago. Soon 
after the commencement of the Franco-German War, Lieutenant- 
General Sheridan visited Europe, and was an interested specta- 
tor of several of the great battles of that war. On his return he 
resumed his command of the Military Division of the Missouri, 
and at the great fire in Chicago, October 7th and 8th, and subse- 
quently, he rendered invaluable service in subduing the progress 
of the destruction, in aiding, protecting and sheltering the tens 
of thousands of sufferers from the great conflagration. Since 
General Sherman's absence in Europe, General Sheridan has 
been acting General-in-Chief of the United States Army, a most 
decided advance to have been made in ten years, from a lieutenant 
of a company to the highest military command in the nation. 

In person Lieutenant-General Sheridan is small, being barely 
five feet six inches in height. His body is stout, his limbs rather 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 






O acliieve success where all before him had failed, to 
retain command where, from unreadiness, incapacity, or 
lack of skill and foresight, all his predecessors had been 
compelled to relinquish it, and without extraordinary 
brilliancy or genius, still, by his soldier-like bearing and his 
manly and irreproachable conduct, to win the esteem and respect 
of all who were under his command, such are the claims which 
the last commander of the army of the Potomac presents to our 
regard. George Gordon Meade was born in 1815, during the 
temporary residence of his parents at Cadiz, in Spain. His 
father, Eichard W. Meade, was a citizen of Philadelphia, and, 
while engaged in mercantile puiiuits in Spain, was intrusted by 
the United States Government with the adjustment of certain 
claims against that country. He filled the offices of Consul and 
Navy Agent of the United States most creditably, and the 
cession of Florida — to prevent whose secession the son subse- 
quently contributed so much — was the result mainly of hia 
efforts. Shortly after his birth, the parents of young Meade 
returned to Philadelphia, where his youthful days were spent. 
"When a boy, he attended the school at Georgetown, taught by 
the present Chief Justice Chase. The parents, having two sons, 
Eichard W. and the subject of this sketch, determined to devote 

tliem to the service of their country. The elder was, therefore, 

143 



144 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

educated for the Navy, wliicli be entered in 1826, while George 
was destined for the Army, and accordingly entered the Military 
Academy, near Philadelphia, and, in 1831, the Academy at West 
Point, whence he graduated with honor in 1835. The same 
year we find him a second lieutenant in the third artillery, in 
Florida, in the Seminole war. The state of his health induced 
him to resign his commission in 1836, and he became engaged 
in civil engineering ; but, in 1842, he again entered the service 
as second lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers, 
and in that capacity served in the Mexican war. During this 
campaign he served on the staff of General Taylor, and after- 
ward on tfhat of General Scott, distinguishing himself at Palo 
Alto and Monterey, and receiving, as an acknowledgment of his 
gallantry, a brevet of first lieutenant, dating from Septembe.r 
23, 1846 ; and also, upon his return to Philadelphia, a splendid 
Bword from his townsmen. During the interval between the 
Mexican war and the rebellion, having been promoted to a full 
first lieutenancy in August, 1851, and to a captaincy of engi- 
neers in May, 1856, he was engaged with the particular duties 
of his department, more especially in the survey of the northern 
lakes ; but upon the call to arms in 1861, he was ordered east, 
and upon the organization of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, 
under the three years' call. Captain Meade was made a brigadier- 
general of volunteers, and placed in command of the second 
brigade, with General McCall as division-general, lii-^ commis- 
sion dating August 31, 18(31. After wintering witli ilie division 
at Tenallytown, and helping to erect JFort Pennsylvania, they 
crossed the Potomac into Virginia during the early part of 1862, 
and became a portion of the Army of the Potomac. AVhen this 
army began to move upon Manassas, during March of that year, 
General Meade's brigade formed a portion of the second division 
of McDowell's first army corps, and with this corps he remained 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEAIE. 145 

after that general was made commander of the Department of 
the Shenandoah. On the 18th of June, 1862, General Meade's^ 
rank in the regular army was advanced to that of major of 
topographical engineers, and subsequently he was confirmed 
with the same rank in the newly organized engineer corps of 
the United States army. About this time the division of Penn- 
sylvania Eeserves was added to the Army of the Potomac, on 
the Peninsula, General Meade took part in the battle of Me- 
chanicsville, June 26, 1862, and in the battle of Gaines' Mills, 
June 27, he fought so bravely as to be nominated for a brevet 
of lieutenant-colonel of the regular army for his distinguished 
services. After the capture of Generals McCall and Reynolds, 
he took charge of the division. In the battle of New Market 
Cross Roads, June 30, General Meade was struck by a ball m 
his side, inflicting a painful wound ; but quickly rose from hia 
bed of suffering, and was again at the head of his division. 
During the Maryland campaign he also distinguished himself at 
the head of the Pennsylvania Reserves. At Antietam, when 
General Hooker was wounded. General Meade took charge of a 
corps, and fought bravely the remainder of the day, receiving a 
slight wound and having two horses killed under him. During 
the fearful battle of Fredericksburg, he held charge of the 
second division of the first army corps, and fought in Franklin's 
left wing. He led his men boldly up to the rebel works, nnd 
doubtless would have captured them had he been properly sup- 
ported; but after losing his brigade commanders, several of his 
field and line officers, and fifteen hundred men, he, with the rest 
of the army, was obliged to retire to the other side of the river. 
Two days after this eventful battle, General Meade superseded 
General Butterfield in the command of the fifth army corps. 
To enable him to hold this, he was promoted to be a major- 
general of volunteers, with rank and commission from Nov. 29, 
10 



l-iQ MEN OF OUR DAY. 

1862. Tn the second day of the action at Chancellorsville, the 
corps of Meade and Reynolds were held in reserve by General 
Tlooker, and on them he relied for covering the crossing of the 
Rapidan, when it was finally decided to withdraw to the north 
bank. They performed their part admirably and with but little 
loss. Lee's army, now re-inforced and flushed with recent vic- 
tories easily achieved, took the offensive once more, and speed- 
ily made its way into Maryland and Pennsylvania, followed by 
Hooker. On the 28th of June, 1863, the Army of the Potomac 
was in the vicinity of Frederick, in Maryland, when a messenger 
arrived from Washington, relieving General Hooker, and invest- 
ing General Meade with the command of the army. Selected 
thus suddenly, without solicitation on his own part, and by the 
unanimous desire of the other corps commanders, he assumed 
command with a deep sense of the responsibilities thrust upon 
him, and made the best disposition of his troops in his power 
for the speedily impending battle. The following is a copy of 
his general order issued upon this occasion : 

" Headquarteks of the Army of the Potomac, 
"June 28, 1863. 
" General Order, iVo. 66. 

" By direction of the President of the United States, I hereby 
assume the command of the Army of the Potomac. As a sol- 
dier, in obeying this order, an order totally unexpected and 
unsolicited, I have no promises or pledges to make. The coun- 
try looks to this army to relieve it from the devastation and 
disgrace of a hostile invasion. "Whatever fotigues and sacrifices 
we may be called upon to undergo, let us have in view constantly 
the magnitude of the interests involved, and let each man deter- 
mine to do his duty, leaving to an all-controlling Providence 
the decision of the contest. It is with just diffidence that I re- 
lieve, in the command of this army, an eminent and accom- 
plished soldier, wlnse name must ever appear conspicuous 
in the history of its achievements ; but I rely upon the 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 14T 

hearty support of my companions in arms to assist me in the 
discharge of the duties of the important trust which has been 
confided to me. 

"GEORGE G. MEADE, 

"Major-geueral Commanding. 
••S. F. BARSTOW Assistant Adjutant-general." 

General Meade at once put his columns in motion, and in 
three days his advance and that of the enemy met at Gettys- 
burg, and commenced the conflict. The meeting at that place 
was by accident, but the advantages of the position were such, 
that instead of withdrawing his advance, upon meeting the 
enemy, he ordered his whole army up to their support. Three 
days of terrible warfare, and great loss of life upon both sides, 
resulted in the defeat of the enemy, and the abandonment of 
the northern invasion. It was the first substantial victory 
gained by the Army of the Potomac, and though the editors of 
the northern papers, and some of the impatient members of the 
Government, were inclined to blame General Meade for not 
making more ardent pursuit, and falling upon the foe, who was 
represented, as usual, as thoroughly demoralized, subsequent 
events have shown that, in this case, " discretion was the better 
part of valor." Pursuit, vigorous and effective pursuit, was 
made, and a considerable portion of the enemy's train was cap- 
tured, but his retreat had been at the same time swift and 
orderly, and so thoroughly disciplined were the rebel troops, 
that an attack upon them by any pursuing force which could be 
brought up promptly, must inevitably have resulted in a disas- 
trous repulse. The problem whether the attack should have 
])een made, however, is one of a tactical nature, requiring for 
its solution special and professional knowledge. It is, therefore, 
one of those questions regarding which public opinion is neces- 
sarily worthless. One 'hing is certain, the emphasis with which 



148 MEN OF OUR DAY, 

the corps commanders pronounced against tlie assault, should 
carry witli it great weight, understanding, as they did, the rela- 
tive situations of the opposing forces. 

After Lee had crossed the Potomac, General Meade hoped to 
bring him to battle before he should pass the mountains, but 
at Manassas gap, where an excellent opportunity occurred, hia 
plans were frustrated by the dilatory movements of a corpa 
commander, who had the advance. For some time after this, 
the opposing armies lay in a state of inactivity, near the Eapi- 
dan, from the necessity of heavy detachments being drawn oS" 
to other points. In October, Lee attempted, by a flank move- 
ment, to sever Meade's communications ; but the latter was too 
quick for him. Making a retrograde movement as far as 
Centreville, to meet this effort, he followed Lee in return, and 
thus the two armies resumed nearly the same position as before 
the movement commenced. In the fighting accompanying these 
operations, the Union army had the advantage, and at Bristow 
station, the rear-guard, under Warren, by a rapid movement 
won the field, and defeated the enemy. Late in November, 
Meade undertook the boldest move that the Army of the Poto- 
mac had ever yet made. Leaving his base, with ten days' 
rations, he crossed the river, hoping to interpose between the 
wings of Lee's army, noAV in winter quarters, and stretched over 
a wide extent of country. The enemy, however, was found to 
present so formidable a fi'ont at Mine Run, behind intrench- 
ments, that it was thought best to forego the contemplated at- 
tack, and our forces were again withdrawn to the north bank, 
and went into cantonments for the season. When General 
Grant, as lieutenant-general, assumed the direction of all the 
forces, his headquarters were with the Army of the Potomac. 
General Meade retained the immediate command of that army, 
and during the severe campaigns of 1864-5, led it on the bloody 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 149 

fields 01 the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the 
region round about Petersburg and Richmond, winning the 
approval of Lieuten;int-General Grant, who in recommending his 
confirmation as a major-general in the regular army, spoke of 
him in these emphatic words: 

*' General Meade is one of our truest men, and ablest officers. 
He has been constantly with the Army of the Potora;ic, confront- 
ing the strongest, best appointed, and most confident army of 
the south. He, therefore, has not had the same opportunity of 
winning laurels so distinctly marked, as have fallen to the lot 
of other generals. But I defy any man to name a commander 
who would do more than Meade has done, with the same chances. 
General Meade was apj^ointed at my solicitation, after a cam- 
paign the most protracted, and covering more severely contested 
battles than any of which we have any account in history. I 
have been with General Meade through the whole campaign; 
and I not only made the recommendation upon a conviction 
that this r cognition of his services was fully won, but that he 
was eminently qualified for the command such rank would en- 
title him to." 

Congress confirmed the appointment, dating his commission 
from August 18tb, 186-1. At the close of the war General 
Meade returned for a brief season to his home in Philadelphia, 
where he was received with the highest honors. He was soon 
nfter appointed to the command of the military division of the 
Atlantic, in which were included all the States on the Atlantic 
coast, and which was perhaps the most important of the military 
departments. His management of this department was able and 
judicious, but without many events of note. He acted prompt- 
ly and wisely, under the direction of the Lieutenant general, 
in suppressing the Fenian movement for the invasion of 
Canada. AViif'n, in the autumn of 1867, President Johnson 



150 MEN OF OUR DAY. . 

having become dissatisfied with General Pope's administration 
in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, in consequence of that 
general's furthering rather than hindering tr.e enforcement of 
the congressional plan of reconstruction, he removed him and 
transferred General Meade to the command of that military 
district, he mistook as he had so often done before, his man. 
General Meade is thoroughly loyal, and obedient to the laws, 
and finding that the congressional plan was the law of the land, 
he obeyed it as strictly, and promptly, as his predecessor had 
done ; even taking measures, such as the removal of the State 
provisional officers of Georgia for contumacy and insubordina- 
tion, at which General Pope had hesitated. He has maintained 
a dignified and honorable course in regard to the Constitutional 
Conventions of the States of his district, and whatever may be 
his own political views, he has sought only to administer the 
laws faithfully, without fear or favor. The Constitutional Con- 
vention of Florida, which at one time was on the point of 
breaking into two impotent factions, was, by his counsels and 
efforts, harmonized, and the successful future of the re-organized 
State assured. 

In July, 1868, the "Department of the South" was recon- 
structed, and General Meade placed in command of it. lie re- 
tained this position until March, 1869, when President Grant 
made a new and better distribution of the army commands, and 
assigned General Meade to the command of the Military Divi- 
sion of the Atlantic, embracing the Department of the East, 
and that of the Lakes; his headquarters were to be at Philadel- 
phia. This command the general still retains, though from the 
subsequent discontinuance of the Division of the South and its 
consolidation with the other divisions, the territory under hia 
charge has been considerably increased. 

General Meade is a scholarly and accomplished officer, some- 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 151 

what cold and quiet ia his manner, usually cautious and slow in 
his movements, never assuming or boastful ; sometimes inclined 
to severity, and not very tolerant of commanding officers who 
were not educated at West Point; but a just and fair man, and 
one governed by principle. He is not a general who would 
rouse his troops to the highest enthusiasm by his personal mag- 
netism, but one who would win their high respect and esteem. 
One of the best descriptions of his personal appearance we have 
seen is that given by an English writer, who was introduced to 
him soon after the battle of Gettysburg. " He is a very remarka- 
ble-looking man — tall, spare, of a commanding figure and 
presence ; his manners easy and pleasant, but having much dig- 
nity. His head is partially bald, and is small and compact ; but 
the forehead is high. He has the late Duke of Wellington class 
of nose ; and his eyes, which have a serious, and almost sad ex- 
pression, are rather sunken, or appear so, from the prominence 
of the curved nasal development. He has a decidedly patri- 
cian and distinguished appearance. I had some conversation 
with him, and of his recent achievements he spoke in a modest 
and natural way. He said that he had been very ' fortunate ; ' 
but was most especially anxious not to arrogate to himself 
any credit which he did not deserve. He said that the triumph 
of the Federal arms was due to the splendid courage of the 
Union troops, and also to the bad strategy, and rash and mad 
attacks made by the enemy. He said that his health was re- 
markably good and that he could bear almost any amount of 
physical fatigue. What he complained of was the intense 
mental anxiety occasioned by the great responsibility of his 
position." 

General Meade, in 1840, married a daughter of Hon, John 
Sergeant, of Philadelphia, and has a large family. 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT 
HANCOCK. 



INFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK, one of tbe most brilliant 
generals of the recent war, is the son of Benjamin 
Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth his wife, both natives 
of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. In a retired 
part of this county, near Montgomery Square, he was born 
February 14th, 1824; when about four years old, his parents 
removed to Norristown, the county town, where his father took 
the charge of a school — although then preparing himself for the 
legal profession,which he afterwards practised with success. 

Amid the pleasant scenes and associations of this thriving 
town, with parents possessing more than average education, 
intelligence and patriotism, he and his twin brother Hilary B., 
(now a lawyer in Minnesota) and a younger brother, John (after- 
ward a Major in the Army of the Potomac), grew up surrounded 
by the best of social and religious influences. Among his play- 
fellows he was naturally a leader, popular in juvenile musical 
matters, affectionate and social. At the village academy he was 
esteemed as truthful, obedient and courageous. With his elders 
lie was an acceptable companion, on account of his modest and 
•unassuming interest in matters and subjects usually uninteresting 
to boys of his age — and he seems to have developed, even at 
that early day, that aptitude for military pursuits and those 
scientific tastes and acquirements which may be considered as 

indicative of the probable course of his after life. Like many 
152 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 153 

another American boy, his first public appearance was as the 
reader of the Declaration of Independence, on a 4:th of July 
celebration at Norristown, when he was but fifteen years old. 

Nearly a year later he was unexpectedly nominated by Joseph 
Fornance, M. C, for a cadetship in the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, which he entered July 1st, 1840, meet- 
ing there with many young men (mostly his seniors) who have 
since distinguished themselves on American battle-fields. He 
graduated from West Point, June 30th, 1844, ranking No. 18 in 
his class; he was brevetted July 1st, as second lieutenant in 
the 6th United States Eegiment of Infantry; and June 18th, 

1846, received his commission of full second lieutenancy in the 
same regiment, stationed at Fort Lawson, on the Red River of the 
South. Here and at Fort Washita (an extreme Western post) 
he continued until, on the outbreak of the Mexican War, in the 
spring of 1847, his regiment went into actual service. lie was 
at Churubusco, August 20th, 1847, under General Scott; there, 
at the head of his platoon, he took a part in the desperately 
contested hand-to-hand fight of Molino del Key, September 8th, 
1847 ; as, also, in the attack, on the 13th, upon the castle of 
Chapultepec, and the three days' fighting which resulted in a 
glorious victory to the American arms. He was at that time 
regimental adjutant, was repeatedly mentioned in the official 
reports of the day; and, in August, 1848, was brevetted first 
lieutenant for gallantry in these actions, dating from 20th August, 

1847. He was also present when the Mexican commissioners 
entered the American camp, with proposals of peace — which 
were rejected by General Scott — and he shared the proud triumph 
of the 14th September, 1847, when that general, at the head of 
6000 war-worn veterans, entered the City of Mexico, as its cap- 
tors. The war closed soon after, and Hancock — serving for a 
time with General Cadwallader, at Toluca, asd having been 



154 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

advanced to the position of regimental quartermaster, was one 
of the last Americans who left the soil of Mexico. His services, 
too-ether with those of other Pennsylvania soldiers, were appro- 
priately acknowledged by the Pennsylvania legislature, in a 
series of resolutions, of which a copy was presented to him. 
He was next stationed at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, Wis., 
until the summer of 1849 ; then, until the autumn of 1855, he 
served as regimental adjutant, on the staff of his old Mexican 
war colonel, Brigadier-General J. S. Clarke, at Jefferson Barracks 
and St. Louis, Mo. 

On the 2-ith of January, 1850, he married Almira, the daugh- 
ter of Mr. Samuel Hussell, a wealthy and highly esteemed mer 
chant of that city ; and, in November 1855, was made assistant 
quartermaster, with rank of captain. 

During 1856, he was stationed as quartermaster at Fort Myers, 
near St. Augustine, Florida ; and, in November of the same 
year, was assigned to duty in the United States quartermaster 
general's department, for the Western district, in Utah Territory, 
and accompanied General Harney on his expedition to Kansas, 
and the regions beyond. From Utah, he was transferred, still 
in the department, to Benicia, California, where he was brought 
into intimate social and official relations with that sterling soldier. 
General Silas Casey ; thence, to the old Spanish town of Los 
Ano-elos, Lower California. Here he remained two years, attain- 
ino- a great degree of personal influence in that region, so that, 
when, in 1861, the civil rebellion broke out, and certain restless 
spirits tried to turn the Golden State into the secession stream, 
his voice and example, as well as his cool, calm courage and 
caution, contributed most powerfully to stem the tide of rebellion, 
and to hold that grand young commonwealth firmly to its loyalty 
to the Union. 

But he burned for a more active part in the defence of that 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 155 

Union, and, at his own request, was transferred to the East. 
Reaching New York citj in September, 1861, he stopped not 
even to greet his parents, but hastened directly to Washington, 
full of the one idea so clearly expressed in the following extract 
from a letter written to a friend at the time. " My politics are 
of a practical kind. The integrity of the Country. The Supre- 
macy of the Federal Government. An honorable peace, or none 
at all." He was immediately assigned to duty as chief quarter- 
master, on the staff of General Robert Anderson, then in Ken- 
tucky ; and, while making his preparations to go, was, most un- 
expectedly to himself, nominated by General McClellan, as n, 
brigadier- general. The appointment was made, entirely on itfi 
merits, by President Lincoln, 23d September, 1861, and he wa.'i 
given the command of a brigade in General W. F. Smith's Divi 
sion, holding an advanced position on the Potomac, and did good 
service in foraging, reconnoitring, etc., in the face of the enemy, 
and in a country overrun by rebel emissaries and spies. In the 
advance of April, 1862, towards Yorktown, Hancock's brigade 
took an active and foremost part, his artillery experience coming 
into good play. Several times he led his brigade in person, in 
the open field; and, at the battle of Williamsburg, just at the 
set of sun, and during a pouring rain, with the enemy massed 
in his front, and with recent and yawning chasms amid the ranks 
of his own men, he rode to the centre of his lines, and quickly 
passing the words "fix bayonets," paused a moment, then, wav- 
ing his hat, uttered the order to his officers, "Gentlemen, charge." 
Following their brave leader who was riding straight upon the 
enemy at the top of his speed, the bayonet charge of that little 
band was the decisive stroke of that day's battle. The enemy 
were whirled helplessly before it, the day was suddenly crowned 
with victory, and Hancock's character for " dash," was established 
from that moment. For this and other services, he was bre- 



156 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

vetted Major in the United States Army, dating from May 4th, 
1862. 

In the progress of the Union army up the Peninsula, his 
brigade was constantly in the advance — his duties being particu- 
larly arduous in the pestilential swamps of the Chickahominy, 
where he shared in all the dangers and fatigues of the principal 
attacks, and rendered important aid by his regular army expe- 
rience in conducting the safe withdrawal of the men under his 
command. At Gaines' Mill, while in the extreme advance, he 
met and overcame the terrific fire of five massed rebel regiments, 
defeating their purpose. At the brief, but sanguinary fight of 
Garnett's Hill, he met and repulsed a savage onslaught made by 
Toombs and the Georgia troops, and held -this position until near 
the close of the day (June 28th), when he rejoined Smith's com- 
mand and took part in the obstinately contested battle of Savage's 
Station (29th), and that of White Oak Swamp on the 30th. For 
his services at Garnett's Hill he was recommended for appoint- 
ment as Major-General of Volunteers ; and subsequently for 
three brevets in the (regular) United States Army, for meritori- 
ous conduct during the Peninsula campaign. June 27th, 1862 
he was brevetted Colonel in United States Army. On the 17th 
September, General Hancock commanded a division on the field 
of Antietam, Md, 

When the Army of the Potomac, in October and November 
1862, marched to Falmouth, Va., Hancock's column was on the 
extreme right, and in perfect order, and at the battle of Frede- 
ricksburg, December 13th, his men crossed the river in open 
boats, under fire, scaled tlie banks, drove off the enemy, and 
formed the pontoon bridge, taking, also, conspicuous part in the 
subsequent heavy fighting of that disastrous day. On the 29th 
of November, on the nomination of General Burnside, he was 
appointed Major-General of Volunteers. In the battle of Chan- 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 157 

cellorsville, May 2d — 4th 1863, Hancock's skill turned the for- 
tunes of the day; and he was soon after appointed by President 
Lincoln to the command of the Second Army Corps. 

When the rebel advance into Pennsylvania was so suddenly 
checked at Gettysburg, July 1st — 3d, 1863, Hancock was present 
with this gallant corps, near the centre of the Union lines; and, 
he was, at first, in command of the field. His dispositions and 
plans, made during the critical interval which elapsed before the 
arrival of Meade, were so admirable, that that gallant genera?, 
on his arrival, saw no reason to change them. On the third da/ 
of that great battle, Hancock was wounded severely, but 
would not be taken to the rear. He was obliged to go home t) 
recover from his wound ; was received at Norristown by his fel- 
low-citizens, and borne to his home on a stretcher, on the 
shoulders of soldiers of the Invalid Corps. His recovery was 
gradual but sure — and the admiration felt for his patriotic ser- 
vices were manifested by numerous presentations, receptions, eU\ 
His Norristown fi'iends gave him a service of nine pieces of gold 
and silver plate ornamented with the trefoil badge of the Second 
Corps, and valued at $1600. When he had so far recovered 
as to be able to travel to West Point, he was honored with pub- 
lic receptions in his native county, at New York, West Point, 
and at St.. Louis, where he went to see his family, and where, 
also, he received from the Western Sanitary Fair a superb 
sword. 

Ordered to Washington, December loth, 1863, he promptly 
obeyed, although his wound was not yet healed, and was detailed 
to the important duty of increasing the ranks of the army by 
his personal presence and exertions. He undertook the raising 
of 50.000 men for his corps (headquarters at Harrisburg, Penn- 
sylvania) with good success — the great cities of New York, 
Albany, and Boston, offering him every public and private 



16» MEN OF OUR DAY. 

facility. At Philadelphia, a public reception was given him ; 
resolutions were offered by the city government, and the rare 
honor was his of having Independence Hall thrown open to his 
use ; on the 22d of February he reviewed the volunteer troops 
of the city ; in New York City, the Governor's Room in the 
City Hall was placed at his disposal ; at Albany, the Legisla- 
ture tendered an official testimonial of respect, as, also, did the 
Legislature of Massachusetts and the merchants of Boston. In 
March, 1864, he was again ordered to the front, and led his old 
corps, the second, again in the advance, under Grant, upon Cul- 
peper Court House, Virginia, participating in the battles of the 
Wilderness. At Spottsylvania, he made a magnificent charge 
at the head of his whole corps, and proved himself the man of 
the day, which he closed with the following brief despatch to 
General Grant. " General, I have captured from thirty to forty 
guns. I have finished up Johnson, and am now going into 
Early." 

At Petersburg, Virginia, he personally rallied the Second 
Corps, and his force was always well in hand ; no matter how 
much extended his lines were, they always responded promptly 
a ad perfectl}'- to his orders, and he handled them with the pre- 
cision, force and ease with which a single regiment is usually 
manoeuvred. For gallant conduct in the AVilderness, at Spott- 
sylvania, Cold Harbor, and in all the operations of tlie army under 
Grant, President Lincoln made him Brigadier-General of the 
United States Army, commission dated 12th August, 186-1. 
From the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair he received a splen- 
did sword ; from the Great Central Sanitary Fair, at Philadel- 
phia, a full set of horse equipments, value $500 ; a residence in 
Philadelphia, from some citizens; and $15,000 placed at his dis- 
posal by the Coal Exchange of the same city for the purpose of 
recruiting his corps, while St. Louis gave him an elegant sword. 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 159 

He remained in command of the Second Army Corps, though 
partially disabled by the repeated breaking out afresh of his old 
wound received at the battle of Gettysburg, until November 25tb, 
1864, when he was compelled to ask to be relieved, and for the 
next three months was at Washington organizing, as far as his 
infirm health would permit, the army corps of veterans. He was 
then put in command of the Department of West Virginia, and 
temporarily of the Middle Military Division, and of the Army 
of the Shenandoah, in which he continued till July 18th, 1865, 
when he was transferred to the Middle Department, and in 
August 1866, to the Department of the Missouri ; in March, 
1867, he took command of an expedition against the Indians of 
the plains. 

Meantime other promotions had come to General Hancock ; 
on the 13th of March, 1865, he had been brevetted Major-General 
in the United States Army for gallant and meritorious conduct 
a* the battle of Spottsylvania ; and on the 26th of July, 1866, 
had been commissioned Major-General in the army. 

While in command of the Department of the Missouri, his 
intercourse with both the President and General Grant had been 
very cordial ; but in August, 1867, President Johnson determined 
to remove General Sheridan from the command of the Fifth 
Military District, which comprised Louisiana and Texas, and 
appointed General Hancock his successor. The latter could not 
immediately enter on his duties; but in November, 1867, he 
went to New Orleans and took command, revoking immediately 
several of General Sheridan's orders, and issued a special order, 
of which the second item (which we give below) was the most 
important portion.* 

* " Second. The General commanding is gratified to learn that peace and 
quiet reign in this department. It will be his purpose to preserve this con- 
dition of things. As a means to this great end, he regards the maintenance 



160 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Of the abstract truth and justice of the opinions here laid 
down, there can be no doubt. But as to their practical opera- 
tion in this case there were two important questions, viz. : 
whether the people of Louisiana and Texas were at this time so 
far reduced to a peaceful condition that they might safely be left 
to the control of the civil authority alone, while the two conflict- 
ing elements of society were yet in open hostility to each other, 
and whether General Hancock, an entire stranger, was compe- 
tent, at the very day of his coming among them, to decide a ques- 
tion of such importance. 

On these two questions there was a conflict of opinion be- 
tween General Hancock and his superior officer, General Grant. 
President Johnson sanctioned General Hancock's course; but 
General Grant revoked his special orders, for carrying out 



of the civil authorities in the faithful execution of the laws, as the most 
efficient under existing circumstances. In war it is indispensable to repel 
force by force, and overthrow and destroy opposition to authority ; but 
when insurrectionary force has been overthrown and peace established, and 
the civil authorities are ready and willing to perform their duties, the mili- 
tary power should cease to lead, and the civil administration resume its 
natural and rightful dominion. Solemnly impressed with these views, the 
General announces that the great principles of American liberty still are 
the lawful inheritance of this people, and ever should be. The rioht of 
trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the freedom 
of speecli, and the natural rights of persons and the rights of property 
must be preserved. Free institutions, while they are essential to the pros- 
perity and happiness of the people, always furnish the strongest induce- 
ments to peace and order. Crimes and offences committed in the district 
must be referred to the consideration and judgment of the regular civil 
authorities, and these tribunals will be supported in their lawful jurisdic- 
tion. Should there be violations of existing laws, which are not inquired 
into by the civil magistrates, or should failures in the administration of 
justice by the courts be complained of, the cases will be reported to these 
headquarters, when such orders will be made as may be deemed necessary. 
While the General thus indicates his purpose to respect the liberties of the 
people, he wishes all to imderstand that armed insurrections and forcible 
resistance to laws will be instantly suppressed by arms." 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 161 

the measures indicated above, and annulling the previous 
orders of General Sheridan and his own subordinate, General 
Mower. 

The controversy between General Hancock and General Grant 
continued for about two months; but finally terminated in 
General Hancock's asking to be relieved from his command in 
January, 1868. He was made commander of the new military 
department of Washington, including Maryland, Virginia, Penn- 
sylvania, and the District of Columbia, by President Johnson 
It is worthy of notice that early in the ensuing summer tht 
States of Louisiana and Texas, as well as several other of tlui 
Southern States, were readmitted to the Union by Act of Con 
gress, and placed under a strictly civil administration, as Genera/ 
Hancock had insisted should be done. 

General Hancock retained his new command until the inau- 
guration of President Grant, when, by the new arrangement oi' 
military commands, he was assigned to the Military Department 
of Dakota, embracing that Territory and part of Montana,. 
There was an unpleasant state of feeling between him and Presi- 
dent Grant, growing out of the Louisiana troubles, and he 
regarded this assignment of command, as he well might, as a 
virtual banishment. Subsequent correspondence has made the 
matter no better. General Hancock is still commander of the 
Department of Dakota, and though senior Major-General in his 
Military Division, he was, during the late absence for nearly a 
year of Lieutenant-General Sheridan, put under the command of 
one of his own juniors. 

In personal appearance, General Hancock is decidedly one of 

the most dignified and imposing of our military officers of high 

rank. Of fine stature, and an intellectual, thoughtful face, a 

man evidently born to command, courteous, and gentlemanly in 

his manners, he possesses in a large degree that personal ma«^ 
11 



162 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

netism wliicli enables liim to exert a powerful influence over the 
men he leads. He is destined yet to exert a powerful influence 
in our national affairs. Bj the death of Generals Thomas and 
Halleck he stands next to the highest rank as a Major-General 
in the army of the United States. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN McALLISTER SCHO- 

FIELD. 



(^jSJ^OHN McAllister SCHOFIELD, the son of Rev. 

'^^)'| James Schofield, was born September 29th, 1831, in Chau- 
^(^ tauqua county, N. Y., and in 1843, when twelve yearg 
^ old, removed with his father's family to Illinois. From this 
State he was nominated and entered as a cadet in the United States 
Military Academy at West Point, graduating from that institution 
in 1853 with the rank of seventh, in the same class as Sheridan 
and J. B. McPherson, with a brevet second lieutenancy in the 
Second Artillery, in which he passed two years, partly at Fort 
Moultrie, S. C, and partly at Fort Cass, Fla. He was then ordered 
to the "West Point Academy as Instructor in Natural Philosophy, 
a position which occupied his time for the next five years. 

In 1860, he obtained leave to occupy the chair of Natural 
Philosophy in Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. Soon 
the War of the Civil Rebellion opened, and the young professor 
was detailed by the War Department to muster the Missouri 
troops into the LTnited States service, being at the same time 
appointed Major of the 1st Missouri Infantry, his regular army rank 
being then that of captain, to which he passed by regular steps 
since his brevet of second lieutenant with which he had left 
West Point. After the battle of Booneville he was made Assis- 
tant Adjutant-General to General Lyon, shared in that chief- 
tain's success at White Creek, and was by his side, when ho 

163 



164 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

fell — at the moment of victory. " Wherever the battle most 
fiercely raged," wrote Major Strong, in his official report, "there 
was General Lyon ; and there, too, was Major Schofield, his 
principal staff-officer. The coolness and equanimity with which 
he moved from point to point carrying orders, was the theme 
of universal conversation. I cannot speak too highly of the 
invaluable service Major Schofield rendered by the confidence 
his conduct inspired." 

His gallantry had its reward in his appointment, November 
21st, 1861, as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and his assign- 
ment to duty in command of the Missouri Militia, authorized by 
the War Department to be raised for service during the war. 
When General Halleck went to Pittsburg Landing, about four- 
fifths of that great State was placed under Schofield. 

In June, 1862, the whole State was set apart as the Military Dis- 
trict of Missouri, under his charge, and shortly after, the army of 
the frontier, operating in Missouri and Kansas, was committed to 
him, and he struck out boldly against all the organized rebel forces 
in that section, whipping them soundly in a severe engagement 
at Maysville, near Pea Ridge (October 22d), and driving them, a 
routed rabble, beyond the Boston Mountains and back into the 
valley of the Arkansas River. He had rapidly developed the 
salient points of a good soldier, and promotion followed close 
upon his footsteps. 

In November, 1862, he was appointed by the President a 
Major-General of Volunteers, and continued in command of the 
"Army of the Frontier" in Southwestern Missouri till April, 
1863, The politicians of Missouri, dissatisfied with his just and 
straightforward administration of affairs, interfered at Washing- 
ton, and prevented his confirmation ; but President Lincoln 
reappointed him in April, 1863. He was assigned to the com- 
mand of the thir'' division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, Army 



MAJOR-GENERAL J®HN m'ALLISTER SCHOFIELD, 1G5 

of the Camberland, April 20th, 1863, but transferred on the 
13th of May following to the command of the Department of the 
Missouri, which involved the command of the Missouri State 
Militia, and captured Fort Smith and Little Rock, in Arkansas. 
He rendered material assistance to General Grant in the siege 
of Yicksburg. This command he held until January, 186-i, 
when he was relieved of his command in Missouri, and on the 
9th of February following made commander of the Depart- 
ment and Army of the Ohio, known at that time as the 
Twenty-third Army Corps, This corps, on the sixth of May 
following (the day when Sherman commenced his Atlanta cam- 
paign), numbered 13,559 effective troops, but was subsequently 
reenforced. In all the battles in the Atlanta campaign, 
and they were many, and some of them very severe. General 
Schofield took an active and honorable part. His command, 
though only one-ninth of the entire force, was never found 
wanting whenever any brave or daring enterprise was to be 
undertaken ; and it would be hard to say which of Sherman's 
army commanders, Thomas, McPherson, or Schofield, best 
deserved the high encomiums which their grim but just chief 
bestowed equally on all. 

Atlanta won and dismantled, and some apprehensions being 
entertained from Hood's raid into Tennessee, General Sherman 
despatched General Thomas, with General Schofield as second in 
command, to look after the Rebel General. Schofield repaired at 
once to Nashville, and learning that Hood was crossing the 
Tennessee at Florence, set out to meet him and obstruct and 
delay his progress until General Thomas could collect a more 
adequate force, and especially a larger cavalry force, for the 
defence of Nashville and Tennessee. Skirmishing with Hood 
continually, from the 14th to the 80th of November, General 
Schofield had a sharp action at Pulaski, another at Columbia, and 



166 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

on the 30th of November fought the battle of Franklin, Tennes- 
see, one of the severest in the AVestern campaigns. His own 
force was greatly outnumbered by that of the enemj^, and the 
result, amid terrible slaughter, was a drawn battle. But Scho- 
lield had gained his point ; he had so thoroughly delayed and crip- 
pled Hood's army that General Thomas had been able to concen- 
trate his troops at Nashville, and Tennessee was safe. Falling 
back upon Nashville by rapid marches, he succeeded in joining 
General Thomas with his command before Hood could overtake 
him. On the 15th and 16th of December, the battle of Nashville 
took place, and General Schofield, conspicuous as ever for his 
daring, had a full share in Hood's discomfiture, and pursued him 
relentlessly, till his troops, a disorganized and almost wholly 
disarmed mob, singly and by scores found their way across the 
Tennessee. 

Spending no time in rest, General Schofield and his command 
were next ordered, wa Cincinnati and Washington, to the mouth 
of Cape Fear River, N. C, arriving January 15, 1865. Here he 
took part in the capture of Fort Anderson and Wihnington, in 
the battle and occupation of Kinston, and on the 22d of March 
joined General Sherman at Goldsboro, 

He was detailed to execute the military convention of capitu- 
lation of General J. E. Johnston's Rebel army, April 26, 1865, 
and was in command of the Department of North Carolina till 
June 21, 1865. He had been made a brigadier-general in the 
regular army, his commission dating from November 30, 1864, 
the day of the battle of Franklin. On the 13th of March, 1865, 
he Avas brevetted major-general in the regular army, and in 
1867 was commissioned major-general in that army. From 
June 22, 1865, to August 16, 1866, he was on special duty in 
Europe. On his return he was put in command of the Depart- 
ment of the Potomac, and on the reorganization of the military 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 167 

commands, March 13, 1867, was made commander of the First 
Military District (Virginia). 

On the 23d of April, 1868, on the final resignation of Secre- 
tary Stanton, he was appointed Secretary of War, and held that 
position till March 11, 1869, performing its duties with eminent 
ability. Resigning this office, he was made commander of the 
Military Department of the Missouri, and on the death of General 
Thomas, transferred to the command of the Military Division 
of the Pacific, with headquarters at San Francisco. lie still 
retains this command. In all the positions, military and civil, 
which General Schofield has been called to occupy, he has ac- 
quitted himself with the hisfhest credit, makina; no failures and 
no blunders. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 



•^fCiliRIGAriER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 
^lll ' ^^^ Havelock of the Americiin Union Army," was born 
mT!^ at Leeds. Kennebec county. Maine, on the Sth of Novem- 
c^ ber, ISoO, the eldest of three children of parents in moder- 
ate, but independent, circumstances. Working upon the tarm until 
his tenth year, he was then, by his father's death, left in the care 
of an uncle, Hon. John Otis, of Hallowell, Maine, Having attained 
a good common-school education, he, in IS-iO, matriculated at 
Bowdoin College, from which he graduated at the head of his 
class in 1S50. Entering immediately the United States Military 
Academy at Wos: Poiur, he graduated from that institution in 
June^ 1854:, with the fourth rank in his class. He w:\s assigned 
to the Ordnance Department, with brevet rank of second lieuten- 
ant, served in Texas and Florida, and was subsequently trans- 
ferred to the United States arsenal at Augusta, Georgia ; and 
from thence to the arsenal at Watervliet^ Maine. On the 1st of 
July, 1S55, he was made a second lieutenant by promotion ; and on 
the 1st of July, 1857, promoted to be first lieutenant, and appointed 
Acting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at West Point, which 
position he held at the commencement of the rebellion. On the 
2 Sth of May, 1861, he resigned his professorship and accepted a 
commission as colonel of the third Maine volunteers, the first three 

years regiment that left that State; and, as senior colonel, led a bri- 
i(>6 



BRTGADIKR-GEXERAL OLIVER OTIS IIOWAKD. 1G9 

gaile at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. The gallantry and 
ability manifested on that occasion secured for him (September 
3d) the rank of brigadier-general, and ho was placed in com* 
mand of a brigade in General Casey's provisional division, to 
which was then intrusted the charge of the national capital. 
In the following December, he was assigned to General Sumner's 
command, the first brigade of the first division of the second army 
corps, in McClellan's Peninsula campaign. At Fair Oaks, June 
1, 1862, while gallantly leading a decisive charge, he was struck 
in the right arm by two bullets, one near the wrist and the other 
at the elbow; he did not leave the field, however, nntil wounded 
a second time, when he was obliged to go to the rear and submit 
to an amputation of the limb. In the words of a friend, " Weak 
and fainting from hemorrhage and the severe shock which his 
system had sustained, the next day he started for his home in 
Maine. lie remained there only about two months, during 
which time he was not idle. Visiting various localities in his 
native State, he made patriotic appeals to the people to come 
forward and sustain the Government. Pale, emaciated, and 
with one sleeve tenantless, he stood up before them, the embodi- 
ment of all that is good and true and noble in manhood. lie 
talked to them as only one truly loyal can talk — as one largely 
endowed with that patriotism which is u heritage of New Eng- 
land blood. Modesty, sincerity and earnestness characterized 
his addresses, and his fervent appeals drew hundreds around the 
national standard." Before he had recovered from his wound, 
and against the advice of his surgeon, he hastened to the front, 
and at the head of a brigade of the second (French's) division, 
(his own being temporarily commanded by General Caldwell,) 
he took part in the second battle of Bull Kun; and in the re- 
treat from Centreville he commanded the rear-guard. At Antie- 
tam he succeeded General Sedgwick, who was woundeil, in com- 



170 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

mand of Lis division. On the 13th of December, at the battle 
of Fredericksburg, he led his division, in support of General 
French's, in the heroic charge made upon the rebel position in 
the rear of that city. In this attempt — in which the Union 
troops, in the words of their commander, " did all that men 
could do — Howard's brigade alone lost nearly a thousand men." 

During the succeeding winter he held the command of the 
Becond division of the second corps ; and, in April, 1863, was 
confirmed as major-general of volunteers (his commission 
dating from the 29th of the preceding November), and was 
transferred to the command of the eleventh corps, thereby re- 
lieving General Sigel. His new command was composed of 
German troops, many of whom could not even speak tho 
English language, and all enthusiastically devoted to their 
former commander, who, for some inscrutable governmental 
reason, had so suddenly been taken away from them. With 
these men, good and true soldiers, yet demoralized to a certain 
degree by the change of command, and before time had been 
afforded to him for re-organizing them or becoming better known 
to them. General Howard was fated to meet the first onset of 
the rebel attack at Chancellorsville. Under the unexpected and 
crushing blow, and despite the heroic endeavors of Howard 
himself, they broke and ran, causing a panic which had well 
nigh proved the irretrievable ruin of the whole Union army. 

The eleventh and its commander keenly felt the dishonor of 
this day — but the noble-hearted and patient Lincoln's confi. 
dence in the subject of our sketch was unshaken, and when a 
change of commanders was urged, he simply replied, " Howard 
will bring it up to the work, only give him time." And 
splendidly did Howard and his men redeem their credit upon 
the battle field of Gettysburg, on the first, second, and third of 
July, 1863. It was to his happy forethought, on the first day 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 171 

of that battle, ia seizing Cemetery Hill, that we may in a great 
measure, attribute the favorable results of the fighting on the 
two succeeding days. It "was one of those divine inspirations 
on which destinies turn," giving him a stronghold of defence 
and shelter, when, as he must have foreseen, and as happened 
three hours later, he was obliged to retire in the face of an 
enemy more than double his own number. And, on this hill, 
the natural centre of the Union lines, the eleventh corps, burn- 
ing to wipe out the memory of Chancellorsville, met and terri- 
bly repulsed the brunt of the attack by the rebel General 
Ewell's division, at sunset of the second day. On the third 
day of this terrible fight, Howard's corps still held the samo 
position, grimly watching the sublime panorama of battle 
which unrolled before them. " I have seen many men in 
action," wrote an eye-witness, "but never one so imperturba- 
bly cool as this general of the eleventh corps. I watched him 
closely as a minie whizzed overhead. I dodged, of course. I 
never expect to get over that habit. But I am confident that 
he did not move a muscle by the fraction of a hair's breadth." 
At last, however, came the furious final charge of tlie desper- 
ate veterans of Lee's array, recklessly bent on obtaining posses- 
sion of Cemetery Hill. Two hundred and fifty cannon cc»ncen- 
trated their unintermitted and terrific fire upon the Union 
centre (Howard's position) and the left — but Howard simply 
ordered one after another of his guns to be quiet, as if silenced 
by the enemy's fire, and his gunners flung themselves flat upon 
the ground. Suddenly, as the rebel line, in huge semicircular 
sweep, reached the Emmetsburg road, the Germans of the 
eleventh corps sprang to their guns, and along the whole front 
of the Union centre and left, more than four miles long — there 
rained such a storm of fiery, pitiless hail of death-bolts upon the 
advancing foe, as swept away not only the last hope of 



172 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the Confederate chieftain, but, almost literally, his best army, 
Gettysburg was won, and the North was saved. President 
Lincoln sent to Howard an autograph letter of thanks for his 
inestimable services, and Congress passed a vote of similar 
import. General Hancock having been severely wounded in 
this battle, the command of his corps (the second) was given to 
Howard. 

In the fall of 1863, after the battle of Chiokamauga, Generals 
Howard and Hooker, with their corps, were sent to reinforce 
Kosecrans, in Tennessee, and at Chattanooga came under the 
command of General Grant, who had then recently assumed the 
leadership of the Military Division of the Mississippi. Here it 
was, also, that Howard became acquainted with General She^-man, 
and laid the foundation of an intimacy which increased un-il the 
close of the war. Together they led their respective corps in 
the assault upon Fort Buckner, on the second day of the battle 
for the possession of Mission Eidge (November 25, 1863), and it 
was Howard's cavalry which contributed largely to the more 
complete discomfiture of the routed rebels, by the destruction 
of the Dalton and Cleveland railroad. In the long and severe 
march of Sherman, to the relief of General Burnside, at Knox- 
ville, in December, 1863, General Howard bore a conspicuous 
part, winning the highest commendation for fidelity and intelli- 
gence from Sherman, who says, in his official report : " In Gen- 
eral Howard throughout, I found a polished and Christian 
gentleman, exhibiting the highest and most chivalrous traits 
of the soldier." During the whole of General Sherman's march 
to Atlanta (May to August, 186-1), General Howard and his 
men did splendid service. During the siege of that place, the 
brave and beloved General McPherson was killed on the 21st 
of July, and his command, that of the Army of the Tennessee, 
was given, by the President, at General Sherman's request, to 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 173 

Major-Gencral Howard. In the opening movement (on the 
29th of August) of General Sherman's feint towards raising the 
siege of Athinta, General Howard's column was fiercely attacked 
by S. D. Lee and Hardee's rebel corps, but repulsed them 
with terrible slaughter; and again, at Jonesboro, on the 31st of 
August, he dealt to Hood's army the last crushing blow, which 
drove him routed from Atlanta, thenceforth open to the Union 
troops. 

In Sherman's " March to the Sea," from Atlanta to Savannah^ 
Major-General Howard led the right wing, marching down the 
Macou road, destroying the railroad, and scattering the rebel 
cavalry — and passing through Jackson, Monticello, and Hilla- 
boro, to Milledgeville, the capital of the State, where he was' 
joined by the left wing of the army, under General Slocum. 
From Millen, the united army moved down on either bank of 
the Ogeechee river, and Howard's column, by the 8th of Decem- 
ber, had reached and seized the Gulf railroad, within twenty 
miles of Savannah. On the night of the 9th, Howard commu- 
nicated, by scouts, with a Union gunboat lying two miles below 
Fort McAllister — which shortly after fell into the hands of the- 
Union troops — and Generals Sherman and Howard wxnt down 
to the fleet in a small boat, where they met Admiral Dahlgren. 
Their great work was done, and Savannah was a splendid Christ- 
mas gift to the President, and to the nation.* Early in February 

* A story is told of this boat voyage, which illustrates, to some extent, 
the characters of both General Sherman and General Howard. On finding. 
the fort carried, and his army again in communication with the Unioa 
army and navy, General Sherman was much elated and jubilant, and soon 
after they eml)arked, he said : " I feel good ; I want to sing or shout, but 
my musical education was neglected. Boys" (to the staff officers in tlie 
boat), "can't you sing something?" The "boys" seemed at a loss. 
" Howard," said the general, " I know you can sing, for I have heard 
you." "But, general," replied Howard, "1 can't sing anything but hymn 



174 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

commcnned the marcli througli the Carolinas, in which Howard 
again led the right wing, moving towards Beaufort, and menac- 
ing Charleston — and finally entering Columbia, the capital of 
the Palmetto State. Then pressing into North Carolina, they 
met and whipped Johnston's rebel army at Averysboro, on the 
20th of March, 1865 ; and while on the march for Raleigh, on 
the 12th of April, were delighted by the glad news of Lee's 
surrender. 

Congress, at the close of the march of Sherman's army to the 
sea, in December 186-1, promoted General Howard to the rank 
of brigadier- general in the regular army, his commission dating 
from the 21st of December, 1861, and the Thirty-ninth Con- 
gress, at their first session, conferred on him the brevet rank of 
major-general in the regular army, dating from March 13, 1865. 

When the Thirty-eighth Congress, at the suggestion of the 
lamented Lincoln, determined upon the organikiation of a 
" Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands," it wa3 
felt almost instinctively that General Howard was the man to 
be at the head of it, and no nomination made by the Secretary 
of War was more heartily approved than that by which he was 
named commissioner. Owing to the necessary duties connected 
with the closing up of his command of the right wing of General 
Sherman's army, General Howard was unable to take charge of 
his Bureau until May 12th, 1865. In its organization there 
were manifold difficulties to be overcome. The act was loosely 
drawn ; many matters were left discretionary with the commis- 
sioner and his assistants, in which their duties should have been 

tunes. 1 don't know any thing else." " Those will be just as good as any 
thing else," said the commanding general ; " sing them." And so, as they 
rar. down to the squadron, Howard made the air vocal with " Shining 
Shore," "Homeward Bound," and "Rock of Ages ;" the staff officers 
joining in, and Sherman occasior.ally trying a stave or two — though it 
was evident, at, he said, that his musical education had been neglected. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 175 

defined ; and their authority was often insufficient to enforce mea- 
sures which were necessary ; still, during the first two or three 
years, the affairs of the Bureau were managed with a discretion, 
an integrity and a conscientious regard for the right in the con- 
flicting interests of the freedman and his former master, which 
won for the commissioner and his subordinates the esteem and 
respect of the intelligent and loyal of all classes. 

When President Johnson began to drift back to his old affinities 
with the rebels, and to sympathize with those whom he had at 
first so loudly proclaimed must be severely punished, the Freed- 
men's Bureau, and its patriotic and loyal commissioner, became 
objects of his utter aversion. He recommended that the Bureau 
should not be suffered to exist beyond the time specified in the 
first organic act, viz., two years; and when a new Freedmen's 
Bureau bill passed both houses of Congress, he vetoed it, 
attempting in a long argument to show the needlessness of any 
such Bureau of the Government. The bill was not passed over 
his veto, but later in the session a better bill, re-organizing it in 
some particulars, but retaining its substantial features and con- 
templating the retention of General Howard as commissioner, 
was passed by a strong vote, and when Mr. Johnson vetoed 
it, was passed again by the constitutional majority of two-thirds. 
Mr. Johnson then gave out that he had determined upon the 
removal of General Howard from the commissionership, but as the 
Tenure of Office act clearly prohibited this, he was compelled 
to allow him to remain, but did all that he could to hinder 
him from accomplishing what he desired. He pardoned in 
every case in which application was made, and sometimes even 
without application, the most violent rebels, especially if 
their lands had been confiscated and were inuring to the bene- 
fit of the Freedmen's Bureau, and he invariably ruled that bis 
pardon entitled them to the restoration of all their lands unless 



176 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

these bad been sold for the non-payment of the direct revenue 
tax. This action of the Pi'esident in many instances seri- 
ously crippled the usefulness of the Freedmen's Bureau, taking 
from it a source of legitimate revenue, and often requiring the 
relinquishment of lands occupied by colonies of freedmen, or 
for schools or churches for their intellectual or religious in- 
struction ; but, during this period of trial. General Howard 
maintained a discreet and dignified course. 

There is no reason to believe that he was actuated at any time 
by any other motive than a desire to do what he believed to be 
right and just to both parties with whom he had to deal — the 
Freedmen and the original owners of the lands and houses, who 
had legally forfeited them by their participation in the Eebellion. 
But the condition of affairs was complicated in several ways. 
The various missionary and benevolent organizations (nearly or 
quiL3 half a score of them) had their schools and in some cases 
their churches among the freedmen, and they were all anxious 
to secure what they deemed their fair proportion of these aban- 
doned lands and buildings for their purposes; and within 
reasonable limits it was right and proper that they should be 
thus aided, since the grants would not go to the personal emolu- 
ment of the officers of the societies, but to the support of the 
Freedmen's schools and worship. General Howard, with 
undoubted good intentions, was too easily influenced, and did not 
administer the trust with perfect fairness, and as a result, one 
society, with which he was religiously affiliated, now holds these 
abandoned lands and buildings by gift from him as commissioner, 
to the value of between two and three million dollars (some state 
the amount even higher), while other societies equally deserving 
had but a mere trifle granted them. 

As was to be expected from a military officer of high rank, 
General Howard selected his assistant commissioners from his 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 177 

3omrades in the army, and undoubtedly endeavored to make a 
judicious selection of these for the work, but in too many 
instances, they proved cruel oppressors of the Freedmen, and 
took advantage of their position to enrich themselves at the 
expense of those whom they were sent to protect. There were, 
doubtless, very many who administered their difficult task with 
perfect honesty and justice, but the number who did not, was so 
large that the title of Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's 
Bureau became almost a term of reproach. General Howard 
from an esprit du corps, which was in one view creditable to him, 
was very unwilling to believe any evil report concerning his 
old comrades, and sometimes kept them in place when he should 
have removed and punished them. In 1869 and 1870, the 
Bureau had from these causes fallen into such a condition that it 
was felt that its longer existence would be undesirable, and an 
investigation into its affiiirs was ordered, which resulted in the 
exoneration of the commissioner from serious blame, though this 
result came about rather from the partial and imperfect character 
of the investiojation, than from his entire innocence of all wrong'. 
Among other good measures inaugurated by him during his 
administration of the Freedmen's Bureau, was the founding of 
Howard University, an institution for the higher education of 
men of color, of which he is the nominal president. He has 
been accused of transcending his powers in what he has done for 
this institution, but the charge has probably no sufficient foun- 
dation. The Bureau of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands is now 
virtually abolished, and General Howard has within a few months 
past been assigned to a new class of duties, the pacijScation of 
the wild and predatory tribes of the Southwest. In this work 
he will very probably prove more skilful than in the manage- 
ment of the Freedmen's Bureau, and win to himself deserved 

honor. The instances in our own, or in English history, where 
12 



1T8 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

men of strictly military education who liave risen to high com 
mand in the army, have proved good civil administrators, have 
been so few that it is greatly to be desired for their own sakes, 
as well as as for the nation's sake, that the experiment may 
never again be tried. 

General Howard in the army was one of our ablest officers, 
a Chevalier Bayard, sa7is jjeur et sans re2^roche; as an administra- 
tive officer, he has, to say the least, won no laurels. In 1865, Colby 
University (Waterville, Maine) and Shurtleff College, Alton, 
Illinois, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.; and Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, Pa., did the same in 1866. 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 




HIS distinguished statesman, jurist and financier — whoso 
somewhat peculiar baptismal names were conferred upon 
him in memory of a deceased uncle Salmon, a resident 
of the town of Portland, Maine — was born at Cornish, 
New Hampshire, on the 13th of January, 1808, He traces his 
descent from Aquila Chase, a native of Cornwall, England, who 
was born in 1618, and, while quite young, came to America and 
settled at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Dudley Chase, the 
grandfather of Secretary Chase, and fourth in descent from 
Aquila, procured a grant of land on the Connecticut river, north 
of Charleston, (or, as it was then called, Fort No. 4,) upon which 
he settled, naming the township Cornish, in honor of the original 
home of his English ancestry. His children became notable 
persons in that region ; one of them, Philander, being the Epis- 
copal Bishop of Ohio, and the founder of Kenyon College ; and 
another, D. P. Chase, became Chief Justice of Vermont. Another 
brother, Ithamar Chase, the father of the subject of this sketch, 
was a fine specimen of the old-fashioned New Englander, of im- 
posing stature, great natural dignity, and an affability of manner 
which rendered him, in the best sense of the word, a gentleman 
Sagacious, honest, energetic, and — Yankee-like — turning hia 
hand to whatever business chance offered, he succeeded, as 

Carraer, merchant, surveyor and manufacturer, in accumulating 

179 



180 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

a handsome property. He secured, also, the confidence : nd 
good-will of his fellow-citizens, whom he long served in the 
capacity of a justice of the peace, and whom, for many years, 
he acceptably represented in the Executive Council of New 
Hampshire. The close of the " war of 1812 " brought disaster 
tc his fortunes, and necessitated, in 1815, his removal to Keene, 
New Hampshire, w^here, two years later, he suddenly died, leav- 
ing his family with little else than the heritage of an honorable 
name and a well-spent life. His wife, however, who was of 
Scotch descent, and possessed much of the energy and thrift 
characteristic of that race, had inherited from her parents a little 
property, which still remained intact after the wreck of her 
husband's fortunes. By a careful husbanding of her resources, 
therefore, she was enabled to keep her children in comparative 
comfort, and to give a mother's tender thought and direction to 
their earlier studies. Young Chase, at the schools of Keene, 
and afterwards at a boarding school, kept by one of his father's 
old friends, at Windsor, Vermont, had mastered the elementary 
parts of knowledge, had got through the Latin Grammar, read 
a little in Virgil's Bucolics, and had commenced Greek and 
Euclid, when, in the spring of 1820, his mother received from 
her brother-in-law, the Bishop of Ohio, an offer to take charge 
of and educate the lad. The proposition was joyfully accepted, 
and, before long, Salmon started on his long journey westward, 
in company with his elder brother Alexander, who had just 
graduated from college, and was going (in company with Henry 
R. Schoolcraft, since distinguished as a traveller, ethnologist 
and writer) to join General Cass's expedition to the Upper Mis- 
sissippi. 

At Cleveland the young traveller parted from his brother and 
friend, and spent nearly a month with a friend of his uncle, 
while waiting for an opportunity to reach that relative, who 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 181 

resided at Worthington, in the interior of the State. While 
thus delayed, the boy was by no means idle, but employed him- 
self much of the time in ferrying travellers across the Cuyahoga, 
upon the eastern bank of which stream the town stood, thereby 
adding somewhat to his slender funds, and gaining a lesson of 
industrious self-reliance which was of much use to him in the 
future. At length, however, an opportunity ofi'ered for Salmon's 
proposed journey. He was placed in charge of two theological 
students, en route for Worthington, on horseback, and with them 
— travelling " ride and tie," as was frequently done in the time 
of the early settlement of the West — he made the long trip 
through the woods, fording streams, and meeting with many 
adventures which were full of interest and novelty. Arriving 
at Worthington, he was received into the family of his uncle, 
the bishop, a most excellent man, but a rigid disciplinarian, 
where he fulfilled the menial office of "chore boy" during the 
intervals of study. In mathematics and the languages he made 
excellent progress, despite the disadvantages under which he 
labored, of being so much and arduously occupied with farm 
duties. In composition he was proficient, and in Greek he so 
far excelled as to be the Greek orator of the bishop's school at 
its annual exhibition in the summer of 1821. One of his inti- 
mate schoolmates says : " Never have I known a purer or more 
virtuous-minded lad than he was. He had an extreme aversion 
to any thing dishonorable or vicious. He was industrious and 
attentive to business. Laboring on the farm of his uncle, he 
missed many recitations, and had but limited chances for study, 
yet, having a natural fondness for books, he was surpassed by 
710 one of his age in the school. He had little regard for hia 
personal appearance, or, indeed, for any thing external. His mind 
appeared to be directed to what was rujJit^ regardless of the 
opinions of others." In the fall of 1822, Bishop Chase removed 



182 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

to Cincinnati, having accepted the presidency of the college 
there ; and here a somewhat easier life, in many respects, fell to 
Salmon's lot. He entered the freshman class of the college, 
and studying hard, attained the rank of sophomore, when his 
studies were interrupted by the removal, in August, 1823, of the 
bishop, who resigned the presidency, in order to visit England, 
with the purpose of obtaining the necessary funds for a Pro- 
testant Episcopal Seminary in the West, an effort which finally 
resulted in the establishment of Kenyon College. Salmon 
returned to his home in New Uampshire, travelling a large por- 
tion of the way on foot ; and, after a short period of school- 
teaching, and a few months of close and rapid preparation at 
the academy in Royalton, Vermont, entered the junior class of 
Dartmouth College. During his collegiate course, an incident 
occurred strongly indicative of that innate love of right which 
has ever been so marked a feature of Mr. Chase's character. 
An intimate friend and classmate having been arbitrarily accused, 
and, despite his asseverations of his innocence, condemned to 
rustication, by the faculiy, for a trivial offence committed by 
other parties, Salmon waited upon the president, protested 
against the decision of the faculty as unjust, and finding it irre- 
vocable, declared his intention to leave the colle2"e with hia 
friend — and did leave. The faculty sent a messenger after them, 
who overtook them on the road, with a revocation of their sen- 
tence ; but the inexorable young men did not return until they 
had spent a pleasant week of visiting among their friends and 
relatives ; and their re-entry into Hanover was a triumph. As 
one of the foremost third of the senior class, young Chase was 
admitted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and at his gradua- 
tion, in 1826, he ranked eighth, delivering an oration on "Lit- 
erary Curiosity. Going directly to Washington, D, C, he an- 
nouuced, in the columns of the " National Intelligencer," of 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 183 

December 23d, 1826, his intention to open a select classical 
school in that city on the first Monday of the ensuing year ; but 
for a time fortune seemed to look most discouragingly upoQ 
him. Patience and courage, however, had their perfect work; 
and, finally, he most unexpectedly received the offer of the male 
department of a well-established classical school, the proprietors 
of which had determined to give their whole time and attention 
to the female department. In this school (in a little, one-story 
frame building on G street,) he commenced teaching, receiving 
the patronage of many eminent men, among whom were Henry 
Clay, William Wirt, and Samuel L. Southard, who entrusted 
their sons to his care. While thus arduously engaged, he occu- 
pied all his leisure time in studying law under William Wirt, 
then Attorney-General of the United States ; and upon attaining 
his majority, in 1829, closed his school, and was admitted to the 
bar of the District of Columbia in February, 1830. 

On the 4th, of March, 1830, he set out for Cincinnati, where 
he commenced the practice of his profession, with an energy 
and perseverance which could not fail to secure iiltimate success. 
He formed a partnership with Edward King, Esq., son of the 
celebrated Rufus King, which,however,was of short duration; and 
in 1833, he formed another connection with Mr. Caswell, a lawyer 
of established reputation, and, while striving to obtain cases, he 
diligently busied himself with the compilation of the statutes of 
Ohio, accompanied with copious annotations and prefaced with 
a historical sketch of the State, the whole forming three large 
octavo volumes. This valuable compendium — the fruit of a 
careful use of time which young professional men too often fail 
to improve — soon superseded all other editions of the statutes, 
and is now the accepted authority in the courts. While the 
reading and investigations necessary to the compilation of this 
work, added largely to his stores of legal knowledge, the admi- 



184 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

rable manner in wliich it was prepared, gave its young autlior 
an immediate reputation among the profession, and secured him 
the notice and respect of the active business community by 
which he was surrounded. It was the stepping-stone to hia 
fortune. Early in 1834, he was made the solicitor of the United 
States bank, in Cincinnati, to which was soon added a similar 
position connected with another of the city banks, and he was 
soon engaged in the full tide of a large and lucrative commer- 
cial practice. 

In 1837 the partnership ol Caswell and Chase was dissolved, 
and shortly after the latter formed a connection with Mr, Ellis. 
Mr. Chase now first came distinctly and prominently before the 
public, in connection with those higher interests with which his 
name is now so widely associated. 

In July, 183G, when the office of the " Philanthropist" news- 
paper, published by James G. Birney, was attacked and de- 
spoiled by an anti-slavery mob, Birney's life \ras saved by the 
courage of Salmon P, Chase, who, from that time, was- foremost 
among those who breasted the tide of pro-slavery aggressions. 

In 1837, as the counsel of a colored fugitive slave woman, 
claimed under the law of 1793, he made an elaborate argument 
denying the right of Congress to delegate to State magistrates, 
powers in such fugitive slave cases — a position since sustained 
by the Supreme Court of the United States,and maintained that 
the law of 1793 was void, because unwarranted by the Consti- 
tution. 

In passing from the court room after making this brave, but 
ineffectual defence in this case, he overheard the remark of a 
prudent citizen, '' There is a promising young man who has just 
ruined himself.^'' Time has proved how erroneous this judgment 
was, yet it was then the popular verdict. During the same year, 
Mr. Chase defended James G. Birney, who was tried before th? 



SALMON" PORTLAND CHASE. 185 

Supreme Court of Ohio, for harboring a negro slave — forcibly 
arguing that slavery was a local institution, dependent for its 
existence upon State legislation ; and that the slave, having 
been brought into Ohio, by her master, was de facto et de jure^ 
free. This was followed, in 1838, by a severe review from hia 
pen, in the newspapers, of a recent report made by the Judiciary 
committee of the State Senate, in which they had advocated 
the refusal of trial by jury, to slaves. He also acted as counsel 
for Mr. Birney, in his trial for haboring the slave Matilda ; and, 
in 1842, defended one Van Zandt, in the United States Circuit 
Court, in a similar trial, in which the principle as stated by the 
opposing counsel, " Once a slave always a slave," was met by 
Mr. Chase with its nobler antithesis " Once free, ALWAYS FREE ;" 
and he followed it with a warning and eloquent denunciation of 
the atrocious claims of slavery. In these cases, Mr. Chase added 
materially to his previous honorable reputation, and took rank, 
thenceforward, with the oldest and ablest practitioners of Ohio. 
Up to this time, he had taken but little part or interest in 
politics, nor had he settled down into the trammels of any par- 
ticu'ar party — voting sometimes with the Democrats, but more 
generally with the Whigs, because the latter seemed most 
favorable to the anti-slavery doctrines to which he had given 
his conscientious adherence. He supported Harrison for the 
Presidency, in 1840; but, becoming convinced from the tone of 
his inaugural address and the subsequent course of the Tyler 
administration that the anti-slavery cause had little or nothing 
to hope for from the Whig party, and that the cause could 
only attain its legitimate aims, which he considered of para- 
mount importance, through the instrumentality of a distinct 
party organizatioa, he united with others, in 1841, in calling 
a State convention of the opponents of slavery and slavery- 
extension. Tlie convention met in December, organized " tho 



18Q MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Liberty party" of Ohio, nominated a candidate for governor, 
and issued an address (from Mr Chase's pen) definhig its 
principles and purposes, which was one of the earliest exposi- 
tions of the anti-slavery movement. In the "National Liberty 
convention," held at Bufialo, New York, in 1843, Mr. Chase 
was a prominent participant, and as a member of the committee 
on resolutions, so vigorously opposed a resolution which pro- 
posed " to regard and treat the third clause of the Constitution, 
whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null 
and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, whenever we are called upon or 
sworn to support it," — that it was not adopted by the committee, 
although it was afterwards moved and adopted in the conven- 
tion. Years afterward, when Senator Butler, of South Caro- 
lina, charged Mr. Chase with having been the author and 
advocate of this resolution, and severely denounced the doctrine 
of mental reservation which it impliedly sanctioned, the latter 
replied, " I never proposed the resolution ; I never would pro- 
pose a vote for such a resolution. I hold no doctrine of mental 
reservation; every man, in my judgment, should speak just as 
he thinks, keeping nothing back, here or elsewhere." During 
the same year Mr. Chase was selected to prepare an address 
on behalf of the friends of Liberty, of Ireland and of Repeal, 
in Cincinnati, in reply to the letter from Daniel O'Connell, in 
behalf of the Loyal National Repeal Association of Ireland. 
This address — which reviewed the relations of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to slavery at the period of its organization, set forth its 
original anti-slavery policy, and the subsec^uent growth of the 
political power of slavery, indicated the action of the Liberal 
party, and repelled the aspersions cast by a Repeal Association 
in Cincinnati, upon anti-slavery men — -was a document worthy 
of Mr. Chase's talents. With Mr. Chase, also, originated tho 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 187 

Southern and "Western Liberty Convention, lield at Cincinnati, in 
June, 1845, and designed, in the words of its founder, to 
embrace " all who, believing that whatever is worth preserving 
in Republicanism can be maintained only by uncompromising 
war against the usurpations of the slave power, are therefore, 
resolved to use all constitutional and honorable means to effect 
the extinction of slavery in their respective States, and its re- 
duction to its constitutional limits in the United States." He 
also drew up the address of the Convention, embracing a his- 
tory of the Whig and Democratic parties in their relations to 
ihe slavery question, and urging the political necessity of 
forming a party pledged to the overthrow of the institution. 

Mr. Chase, who had now become a widely distinguished 
champion of anti-slavery, was associated with William H. 
Seward in the defence of John Van Zandt, who was arraigned 
before the United States Supreme Court, for aiding in the 
escape of certain slaves ; and subsequently he was retained for 
the defence in the case of Dieskell vs. Parish, before the United 
States Circuit Court, at Columbus, Ohio. In both of these 
cases he argued, in a most elaborate manner, that, " under the 
ordinance of 1787, no fugitives from service could be reclaimed 
from Ohio, unless thert? had been an escape from one of the 
original States ; that it was the clear understanding of the 
framers of the Constitution, and of the people who adopted it, 
that slavery was to be left exclusively to the disposal of the 
several States, without sanction or support from the National 
Government; and that the clause of the Constitution relative to 
persons held to service was one of compact between the States, 
and conferred no power of legislation on Congress, having been 
transferred from the ordinance of 1787, in which it conferred no 
power on the Confederation and was never understood to con- 
fer any." In 1817, Mr. Chase attended a second "National 



188 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Liberty Convention ;" where, in the hope that tho agitation of 
the Wilmot Proviso would result in a more decided movement 
against slavery, he opposed the making of any national nomina* 
tions at that time. He anticipated, also, the Whig and 
Democratic Conventions of 1848, by calling a Free-Territory 
Convention, which resulted in the Buffalo Convention, in 
August of that year, and the nomination of Mr. Van Buren for 
the presidency. 

On the 22d of February, 1849, Mr. Chase was elected to the 
United States Senate, by the entire vote of the Democrats, and 
a large number of the free-soil members of the Ohio Legislature. 
Supporting the State policy and the nominees of the Democracy 
of the State, he still declared that he would desert it if it de- 
serted the anti-slavery position which it then held. On the 26th 
and 27th of March, 1849, he delivered a cogent, eloquent and 
timely speech against the compromise resolutions ; following it 
up during the session, with others on the specialities embraced 
within these resolution, and moved three amendments — one, 
against the introduction of slavery, in the Territories to which 
Mr. Clay's bill applied ; another, to the Fugitive Slave Bill, to 
secure trial by jury to alleged slaves; and the third, to an amend- 
ment made by Senator Davis, relative to the reclamation of 
fugitives escaping from one State into another — all of which, 
however, were lost. 

The nomination of Franklin Pierce for the presidency, and 
the approval of the compromise of 1850, by the Democratic 
Convention at Baltimore, in 1852, was the signal for Mr. Chase's 
withdrawal from the Ohio Democracy. He immediately took the 
initiative in the formation of an Independent Democratic party, 
which he continued to support, until the Nebraska-Kansas bill 
began to be agitated. To this bill he was a strenuous and 
prominent opponent, offering three important amendments, 



SALMON POHTLAND CHASE. 1^^ 

which were severally rejected, and closing his opposition by an 
earnest protest against it on its final passage. During his Sena- 
torial career, economy in the National Finances ; a Pacific Rail- 
road by the shortest and best route ; the Homestead Bill ; Cheap 
Postage, and the provision by the National Treasury for defray- 
ing the expense of procuring safe navigation of the Lakes as 
well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, all found in Mr. Chase 
an able and earnest champion. In 1855, he was elected Gover- 
nor of Ohio, by the opponents of the Pierce administration, and 
his inaugural address recommended single districts for legisla- 
tive representation, annual, instead of biennial sessions of the 
Legislature, and an extended educational system. At the next 
National Republican Convention, he declined the nomination 
for the Presidency, which was urged upon him by the delega- 
tions from his own, as well as other States, In the course of 
the same year, a deficiency was discovered in the State treasury, 
only a few days before the semi-annual interest on the State 
debt became due — but Governor Chase's energetic action com- 
pelled the resignation of the State Treasurer, who had concealed 
the deficiency, secured a thorough investigation, and effected 
such a judicious arrangement as protected the credit of the 
State, and averted what would otherwise have been a serious' 
pecuniary loss. 

At the close of his first gubernatorial term, the Republicans 
insisted upon his accepting a re-nomination, which was carried 
by acclamation, and he was re-elected after a spirited canvass. In 
his annual message for 1858, he made an elaborate exposition of 
the financial condition of Ohio, recommending, also, semi-annual 
taxation, a greater stringency in provisions for the security of 
the State treasury, and proper appropriations for the establish- 
ment of benevolent institutions, especially for the Reform: 
School — all of which suggestions met with the approval of the 



190 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Legislature, and laws were passed in accordance therewith. In 
tlie beginning of 1860, he was again chosen to the United 
States Senate, from Ohio, 

Upon the secession of South Carolina, in Decemher, 1860, 
Mr. Chase urged upon General Scott, bj letter, the necessity of 
taking active measures to secure the public property, assuring 
him that the country would fully endorse such action. But 
timid counsels prevailed. Again, in February, 1861, Mr. Chase 
represented Ohio at the Conference of the States, held at "Wash- 
ington, by invitation of Virginia, and there he stood boldly out 
as an uncompromising opponent of any purchase of peace by 
undue concessions to the South. Meanwhile, when threats were 
made that Mr. Lincoln should never be inaugurated, unless the 
South received the concessions it demanded from the North, Mr. 
Chase replied, " Inauguration first, adjustment afterwards," 
words which, caught up and used as a popular motto, had no 
small influence. 

On the 4th of March, 1861, he took a seat in the Senate. Two 
days afterwards, however, he yielded to a very general and 
pressing demand, on the part of personal and political friends, 
(as well as some who, up to that time, had not been considered 
as either), and resigned his seat in the Senate to accept the Sec- 
retaryship of the Treasury, which had been tendered him by 
President Lincoln. Immediately after the organization of the 
Cabinet, and when the most important topic under discussion 
was, what should be the policy of the Government towards the 
seceded States, Mr. Chase's influence was strongly felt in the 
national councils. When hostilities commenced at Sumter, the 
Secretary urged upon General Scott the propriety of occupying 
Manassas, which, had it been done, would have compelled the 
evacuation of Harper's Ferry and the Shenandoah valley by 
the rebels, and would have materially altered the character of 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 191 

tbe opening campaign of the war. To Mr. Chase's suggestion, 
also, was due tlie call, promulgated in May, 1861, for 65,000 
volunteers, to take the place of the 75,000 first called for ; 
and to him the President committed, with the consent of the 
Secretary of War, the preparation of the necessary orders — 
since known as Nos. 15 and 16 — the one for the enlistment of 
volunteers and the other for regular regiments. The object 
which Mr. Chase had in view was the establishment of a regular 
system — which had not hitherto existed — in conformity with 
which all new enlistments should be made, and in this important 
work he was assisted by Colonel Thomas, Major McDowell and 
Captain Franklin. During the trying period, in the early part 
of the war, when great efforts were made to precipitate Missouri, 
Kentucky and Tennessee into rebellion, Mr. Lincoln committed 
to his Secretary of the Treasury the principal charge of what- 
ever related to the conservation and protection of the interests 
of the Government in those States. He obtained for Kousseau, 
of Kentucky, his colonel's commission, and gave him his order 
for the raising of twenty companies. He also drew most of the 
orders under which Nelson acted, and furnished him with the 
means of defraying his expenses for the expedition into the 
interior of Kentucky, and the establishment of Camp Dick 
Robinson — movements which saved that State from secession. 
He was the honored confidant and adviser of General Cameron, 
while Secretary of War, especially in relation to western border- 
state matters, slavery, and the employment of colored troops; 
and it was at his suggestion that General Butler was directed by 
the Secretary of War to refrain from surrendering alleged fugi- 
tives from service to alleged masters, and to employ them under 
such organization and in such occupations as circumstances 
might suggest or require. It was, however, in the discharge of 
his legitimate duties, as Secretary of the Treasury, that Mr. 



irf2 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Chase achieved his greatest success. The treasury, at the time 
when he assumed its charge, was nearly bankrupt. Lie, there- 
fore, immediately proceeded to negotiate a loan. On the 22d of 
March, 1861, he issued proposals for his first loan of $8,000,000 
on six per cent, bonds, redeemable at the end of twenty years. 
The bids were opened April 2d, and amounted to $27,182,000, 
at rates varying from eighty -five for one hun d to par. All 
bids below ninety-four were promptly rejected by the Secretary, 
who determined to let the country know at the outset that bonds 
of the United States were not to be sacrificed in the market, 
and that the national credit was not so impaired as to be at the 
mercy of brokers and capitalists. The disappointed bidders 
winced at this decision, but its effect upon the country at large 
was certainly healthy. 

Continuing to effect loans under existing laws, he borrowed, 
on the 11th of April, $4,901,000, on two years treasury notes, at a 
small premium ; on 25th of May, $7,310,000, on twenty years 
bonds, at from eighty-five to ninety-eight, declining all bids 
below ninety five ; and on two years treasury notes, $1,681,000 
at par, all of which loans, considering the situation of the coun- 
try, were remarkable successes. Congress, on its assembling in 
July, 1861, authorized a national loan, under which act, and the 
acts amending it, he took measures to secure the funds needed 
to carry on the war. The result of a full and frank conference 
with the representatives of the banks of Boston, Philadelphia 
and New York, at the latter city, was an agreement, on the part 
of the banks, to unite as associates in an advance to Government 
of $50,000,000 ; while he, on his part, agreed to appeal to the 
people for subscriptions to a national loan, on three years notes, 
bearing seven-thirty per cent, interest, and convertible into 
twenty years bonds bearing six per cent., the proceeds of which 
subscriptions should be paid over to the banks, in satisfaction 



SALMON" PORTLAND CHASE. 193 

of tbeir advances, so far as they would go; the deficiency, if 
any, to be made good in seven-thirty notes. By this and a sub- 
sequent loan, made on nearly the same terms, the Government 
obtained $100,000,000 at a rate of interest only one and three- 
tenths of one per cent, higher than the ordinary rate of six per 
cent., and that for three years only. The banks now declining to 
advance another $50,000,000 for the seven-thirty notes, through 
the efforts of the Secretary, a seven per cent, loan was negotiated 
on the 16th of November, but trouble resulted from the oppo- 
sition of many of the banks to the further issue of United States 
notes as legal tender, in distinction to their own local issues, and 
the Secretary now applied the remedy to this state of aiSairs by 
uniting his whole influence to those who desired the United 
States notes made a legal tender, and by joining them, decided 
the success of that measure, which he had previously urged upon 
Congress. 

Tt was, however, only by the most indomitable perseverance 
that he was enabled, after several defeats and long delay, to 
secure the passage of the National Banking Act, providing for 
a system of national banks, based upon government securities. 
This system, which embraces the best features of the New York 
Free Banking System, together with certain additions protec- 
tive of the rights both of the bill-holder and depositor, has 
proved most successful, and, although at first vehemently 
opposed by some of the State and local banks, has now fairly 
triumphed over all opposition. In the negotiation of these 
loans, Mr. Chase secured the services of Mr. Jay Cooke, an emi- 
nent financier of Philadelphia, as general agent, who by his 
numerous agencies, and a wholesale and ingenious system of 
advertising, gave the widest possible publicity to the loan, and 
secured for it the full favor of the community throughout the 

United States. By January 1st, 1864, five hundred millions of 
13 



194 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the loan (5-20 bonds) was taken up, and the subscriptions were in 
excess, by nearly fourteen millions, of the amount authorized. 
The full measure of the Secretary's comprehensive plans was 
insured by the enactment, in 1864, of tax laws, in accordance 
with his repeated suggestions since 1861, by which the revenue 
to the government was largely increased, and by the aid of 
which future secretaries of the treasury will be enabled to 
" weather" any financial pressure. This great work accom- 
plished, he resigned his secretaryship, June 30, 186-i. 

The great importance and beneficial results of Mr. Chase's 
financial measures, adopted as they were in the heat and pres- 
sure of the most stupendous war of modern times, and initiated 
with a bankrupt treasury, and notice in advance from the great 
financial powers of Europe, that we " need not expect any assist- 
ance from them," render it desirable that they should be 
somewhat better understood than they have been, and we there- 
fore gladly avail ourselves of the following explanations of them, 
recently put forth, it is understood, with his own sanction. 

The objects which he had in view, were : 

"I. To establish satisfactory relations between the public 
credit and the productive industry of the country — in other 
words, to obtain supplies. The suspension of the banks put an 
end to the first and most obvious resort, loans of gold, and made 
new methods indispensable. Then the secretary resorted to 
legal tender notes, made them a currency, and borrowed them 
as cash. The patriotism of the people came in aid of the labors 
of tlie treasury and the legislation of Congress, and the first 
great object was made secure. 

" II. To provide against disastrous results on a return of 
peace. This could only be done by providing a national cur- 
^enc3^ There were about 1,500 State banks in existence which 
wanted to make their own paper the currency ot the country 
This the secretary resisted, and confined his loans to greenbacks; 
but he did not drive out their currency, nor indeed did he think 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 195 

it exactly honest to so deprive them of it, without giving any 
equivalent. He preferred to neutralize their opposition to a 
national currency and make them allies as far as possible, instead 
of enemies. In his endeavors to secure such results, he proposed 
the national banking system, and before he left the Department 
its success was assured. 

*' The national banks were certain to be useful in many 
ways, but the secretary's main object was ths establishment of a 
national currency. This saved us from panic and revulsion 
at the end of the war, and is of inestimable value to men of 
labor and men of business — indeed, to every class. 

" III. The third division of his labor was to provide a fund- 
ing system. It was unavoidable during the rebellion that 
every means of credit should be used. He borrowed money 
every way he could at reasonable rates. The form that suited 
one lender did not suit another ; and the army and navy needed 
every dollar that could be raised in any form. Hence tem- 
porary loans, certificates of deposit, certificates of indebtedness, 
7.30 notes, compound interest notes, treasury notes payable 
after one and two years, etc. 

"But it was necessary to have funding hans^ into which all 
these temporary loans could be uUimatel// merged. To this end 
the secretary established the 5-20 loan and the 10-40 loan. His 
belief was that after the $514,000,000 of the 5-20 loan had been 
taken, tlie additional amounts needed could be obtained by the 
10-40 loan and the temporary loans ; but the secretary was 
ready to resort to the 5-20s in case of emergency. He did get 
$73,000,000 in the 10-40 loan, and his successors got about 
$120,000,000 more, at par. 

" It is easy to see how Mr. Chase's funding system worked, 
by examining the last statement of the public debt. The condi- 
tion is something like this: $1,200,000,000 5-20s; $200,000,000 
10-40s; $200,000,000 81s payable now after fourteen years, 
which can then easily be put into 10-40s ; other loans (all tem- 
porary), say $500,000,000, of which three fourths consist of 
7.30s, convertible, and certain to be converted into 10-40s; and 
say $400,000,000 greenbacks, including fractional currency, 



106 



MEN OF OUR DAT 



making the debt of $2,500,000,000. So, it may be seen, tbe 
whole debt except '81s is already funded, or sure to be funded 
in 5-20 six per cei ts, or 10-40 five per cents." 

It has been well said of Mr. Chase's conduct in this hazardous 
and laborious position, that " the nerve he displayed, the breadth 
of intellect he manifested, the ardor of his patriotism, and the 
wonders wrought by his financial wisdom and skill throughout 
the first three years of the rebellion, are so recent and so well 
remembered, and live so freshly in the hearts of his grateful 
countrymen, as to render unnecessary any thing more than this 
simple reference. His enduring fame is built on his measures ; 
his best eulogy is written in his acts. He vindicated the wisdom 
of the President's choice; he both justified and rewarded the 
confidence of the people." It is not strange, therefore, that 
President Lincoln, with strengthened confidence in Mr. Chase's 
patriotism, ability, and sound judgment, tendered to him, in 
186-4, the highest judicial seat of the nation, which had become 
vacant by the death of its venerable incumbent, Roger S. Taney. 
The nomination of Mr. Chase as Chief Justice, by the Execu- 
tive, on the 6th of December, 1864, was promptly confirmed by 
the Senate, and on the 13th of the same month he took his seat 
upon the bench, " having previously," as the records state, ' on 
the same day taken the oath of allegiance, in the room of the 
judges, and the oath of office, in open court, at his place upon 
the bench, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gen- 
tlemen, who had assembled to witness a ceremony which, in this 
nation, had taken place but once in sixty-three years preceding.** 
Shortly after his assumption of the duties of tnis high position, 
the Chief Justice made an extended tour throughout the recently 
conquered rebel States — passing down the Atlantic coast and up 
the Mississippi river — with the purpose of gaining a personal 
knowledge of the actual condition of the people. During this 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 197 

trip, he embraced every opportunity of conversing unreservedly 
with all, both white and black, who chose to avail themselves 
of the knowledge of his presence, and the information thus 
obtained was placed at the public service in his correspondence 
with the President and others, while his suggestions of measures 
necessary and expedient to the proper accomplishment of peace 
and reconstruction, order and justice, were characterized by a 
comprehensiveness of view and a noble spirit of Christian 
patriotism eminently creditable to his head and heart. 

Few public men of his years, in this country, possess minds 
better stored with varied treasures of knowledge, or bear the 
evidence of severer mental discipline than Mr. Chase. To an 
intellect at once comprehensive, discriminating and retentive, 
he adds the graces of learning and the power of logic ; and 
whatever subject he treats, is handled with keen insight, 
breadth of view, thoroughness of reflection, and strength of 
reasoning. His whole career as a statesman and jurist, and all 
his public efforts, in popular addresses, newspaper writings, 
occasional lectures, and contributions to periodical literature, 
show the same breadth of premise, exactness of statement, 
logical sequence, completeness of consideration, and power of 
conclusion, from which we are justified in hoping and expecting 
much in his present exalted position, where his rulings and 
decisions have always been characterized by their adherence to 
the great fundamental principles of equity on which all human 
law is professedly based. His is no narrow mind to run only 
in the rut of precedents, and be constantly hampered by the chi- 
canery of rigid constructionists. He goes naturally to the foun- 
dation principles, and while he has no superior, either in legal 
learning and acumen, or in wide and generous culture, upon the 
bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, he is less 



198 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

likely perhaps than any of them to base an opinion on previous 
decisions either there or in the English courts. 

In the trial of Andrew Johnson under the impeachment of 
the House of Representatives, Chief Justice Chase was, by tho 
Constitution, the presiding officer of the High Court of Impeach- 
ment. His course there was marked by dignity and ability. 
The position was a difficult and trying one, and his powers (it 
being the first instance of such presidency since tlie adoption 
of the Constitution) were not clearly defined ; but he acquitted 
himself admirably in it. 

In person Mr. Chase presents the most imposing appearaiice 
of any man in public life in this country. He is over six feet 
in height, portly and well proportioned, with handsome features, 
and a grand, massive head. Few men possess so much real 
dignity and grace of manner. But with it all, he is utterly 
incapable of the arts of the demagogue, or of any effort to win 
popularity, by "bending the supple hinges of the knee, that 
thrift may follow fawning." He entered upon his office of 
Secretary of the Treasury with a property of about ono 
hundred thousand dollars ; he left it three years later, after 
managing the immense finances of the nation in war time, 
materially poorer than when he assumed office. No man who 
knew him could doubt, for an instant, his unflinching integrity 
and honesty. 

The name of Chief Justice Chase has often been used in con- 
nection with the Presidency, and while an aspiration for that 
exalted position is not unworthy of one who could not but be 
conscious "that he had done the State some service," it would 
have been more worthy of his great and brilliant past career 
had he remembered that his present office is one of equal honor 
and of less severe test of character than the Presidency. 

We would be glad to present Chief Justice Chase's character 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 199 

to our readers as one without foible or blemish, so highly do we 
esteem the great work he accomplished for freedom for so many 
years; but we are afraid that he cannot be acquitted of the 
charge of coquetting for the Presidency. In 1868, at the Demo- 
cratic National Convention, he, one of the founders of the Anti- 
Slavery and of the Republican parties, the firmest and most 
fearless advocate of the measures which made the Union party 
triumphant in the civil war, and which had been censured over 
and over again by the Democratic party as ruinous to the Gov- 
ernment, was the avowed candidate of a large section of that 
party for the Presidency, and his daughter, Mrs. Senator Sprague, 
was through the. whole session canvassing actively for his nomi- 
nation. Defeated in that convention by Horatio Seymour, who 
secured the nomination but not an election, it was supposed by 
his old friends that he had given up all hope of reaching a nomi- 
nation ; and in the interval of a long illness, which it was feared 
had impaired seriously his intellectual and physical powers, but 
from which he happily recovered, other men and other issues 
had become so prominent that he was not even suggested as a 
candidate. But the old ambition was not yet dead, and he was 
so unwise as to write the following letter to a friend to be used 
at the Cincinnati Liberal Reform Convention in May, 1872. 

Washington, D. C, April 29, 1872. 

My Dear Sir : 

My name, if we may judge from the newspapers, will not be 
much considered at Cincinnati, and I am quite content and none 
the less grateful to the friends who think it should be so, as you 
know I have not sought or desired the nomination. If it were 
judged the best means of uniting the greatest number of those 
opposed to the Administration on principle, it would doubtless 
be my duty to accept it. If any other name be preferred, I 
shall be entirely satisfied. What is essential with me is that 
what has been gained — freedom — be secured beyond peradven- 



200 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ture ; tbat tlie currrency be placed on a sound basis ; tbat a real 
reform be accomplished in taxation, internal and external, and 
in perfect reconciliation of sections and citizens. Your Parkers- 
burg platform, as I remember it, embodies these views substan- 
tially, and I hope none contrary to it will be adopted. 

Yours truly, 

S. P. Chase. 

It was a painful commentary on this letter that at that con- 
vention he received on the first ballot two and a half votes, on 
the second, one, and on the subsequent ballots none. Yet despite 
this sliirht weakness, Chief Justice Chase is one of our statesmen 
of whom we have great cause to be proud. His views are broad 
and profound on all the great questions of statesmanship, and 
his manliness and strict integrity render him a man to be 
thoroughly trusted and honored. May he long continue to fill 
the high office he adorns by his learning and ability. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 




.. ILLIAM HENRY SEWARD, tlie son of Dr. Samuel 
<?)1iilii g^ Seward, for seventeen years a county judge, and a 
man of more than ordinary business ability and practical 
philanthropy, was born at Florida, Orange county. New 
York, on the 16th of May, 1801. Manifesting from childhood 
an earnest love of knowledge and taste for study, he was sent, 
when nine years old, to Farmers' Hall Academy, at Goshen, in 
his native county. Rapidly advancing in his studies there, and 
at an academy afterwards established in his native town, he was 
fully prepared, at the age of fifteen, to enter college. Matricu- 
lating, as a sophomore, at Union College, in 1816, he manifested 
a peculiar aptitude for rhetoric, moral philosophy and the 
classics. In 1819, in his senior year, he spent some six months 
in teaching at the South, and, returning to college, graduated 
with high honors ; being one of the three commencement ora- 
tors chosen by the college society, to which he belonged. The 
subject he selected was, '* The Integrity of the American Union." 
Entering, soon after his graduation, the office of John Anthon, 
of New York city, he commenced the study of law, continuing 
and completing his preparation with John Duer and Ogden 
fiofi'man, of Goshen, New York, with the latter of whom he 
became associated in practice. In January, 1822, he was admit- 

led to the bar, and removing to Auburn, New York, formed a 

201 



202 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

partnership with Judge John Miller, of that place, whose young- 
est daughter became his wife in 1824. As a lawyer, his orio-i- 
nality of thought and action, as well as his great industry, soon 
brought him an extensive and lucrative practice. ■ Politics also 
claimed much of his attention, and, as was natural, he followed 
in the political footsteps of his father, who was a prominent 
Jeffersonian Eepublican. In October, 1824, despite his youth, 
he was chosen to draw up the Address to the People of the Ke- 
publican Convention of Cayuga county, which document was an 
exposure of the origin and designs of the Albany Regency. In 
1827, he contributed largely, by his eloquent speeches, to the 
success of the popular movement m behalf of the Greeks, then 
struggling for their freedom. In 1828, he presided with distin- 
guished ability over a very large convention of young men 
favorable to the election of John Quincy Adams to the presi- 
dency, held at Utica, New York, and the same year declined a 
profiered nomination to Congress. When the National Eepub- 
lican party was dissolved by Jackson's election as President, Mr. 
Sewurd fraternized with the Anti- Masonic organization, the only 
opposition then existing to the Albany Eegency, and from that 
party accepted, in 1830, a nomination to the State Senate. Ho 
was elected by a majority of two thousand, in a district (the 
seventh) which had given a large majority the other way in the 
previous year. Scarcely thirty years old, he entered the Senate 
as the youngest member who had ever attained that honor, and 
found himself, politically, in a small minority, at a time when 
party lines were sharply defined. Yet he fearlessly entered the 
lists, throwing down the gauntlet to the Jackson power and the 
Albany Eegency, taking part in all debates, advocating the 
claims of abolition of imprisonment for debt, the amelioration of 
prison discipline, opposition to corporate monopolies, the exten- 
sion of the popular franchise, the common-school system, the 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 203 

Erie railroad and internal improvements, etc. His maiden 
speech was on a militia bill, in which he proposed, substantially, 
the same system of volunteer uniform companies as that at 
present in use in New York State ; and during the second session 
of his term he delivered a speech in advocacy of a national 
bank, which, with others of similar import, gave rise (by con- 
centrating an opposition in the Senate) to what subsequently 
developed as the Whig party. In the summer of 1833, during 
the recess of the Senate, Mr. Seward made a hurried visit to 
Europe, adding largely to his reputation by the letters which he 
wrote home, and which were published in the Albany "Evening 
Journal." In September, 1834, he w^as nominated for governor 
by the Whig State Convention, against William L. Marcy, but 
was defeated, although running ahead of his ticket in every 
county. Resuming his practice, Mr. Seward, in 1836, settled in 
Chautauqua county, as the agent for the Holland Land Com- 
pany ; and, in 1838, was again nominated by the Whigs, and 
elected governor by ten thousand majority. In 1840, he was 
re-elected. During his administration occurred the celebrated 
anti-rent difficulties; the Erie canal was enlarged; the State 
lunatic asylum was founded ; imprisonment for debt, and every 
vestige of slavery were eradicated from the statute-books ; im- 
portant reforms were effected in elections, in prison discipline, 
in bank laws, and in legal courts. One of the most important 
events of his administration was the controversy with the Gov- 
ernors of Virginia and Georgia, in which the latter claimed fVbm 
him the rendition of certain colored sailors, charged with having 
abducted slaves from said States. Governor Seward refused 
compliance, and argued the case with a firmness and ability 
which attracted the attention of the whole country; and when 
his course was denounced by the Democrats, after their accession 
to power, and he was requested to transmit their resolutions to 



204 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the Governor of Virginia, Le declined to do so — remaining 
inflexible, despite the retaliatory measures threatened by tho 
State of Virginia against the commerce of New York. A 
similar instance of firmness and sagacity was manifested by him, 
in his refusal to surrender, to the British Government, Alexander 
McLeod, charged with burning the steamer Caroline, during 
the Canadian rebellion of 1837, a refasal in which he persisted, 
in spite of the British minister's threats of hostilities, the advice 
of President Tyler's administration, and the strong intercession 
of many of his own political friends. In January, IS-iS, Mr. 
Seward, declining another nomination, resumed the practice of 
law, devoting himself, for the ensuing six years, assiduously to 
business, attaining a large practice in the highest State courts, 
and — -owing to a particular aptitude for mechanical science — 
having a considerable number of patent-cases, which brought 
him into association with the best legal talent of the country, 
lie also gave freely, not only his professional services but his 
means, in behalf of certain friendless unfortunates, whose cases 
and trials form some of the most interesting records of criminal 
jurisprudence. Conspicuous among these was the case of the 
insane negro Freeman, the murderer of the Van Nest family, in 
Orange county. New York, a case which, in spite of derision, 
obloquy and reproach, Mr. Seward never forsook, until the 
death of his client, " caused by the disease of the brain, satisfied 
even the most prejudiced, that his course had been as wise 
as it confessedly was humane and generous." He also gratui- 
tously defended, before the United States Supreme Court, in 
1847. the case of John Van Zandt, charged with aiding fugitive 
slaves to escape from Kentucky; his argument in the case 
being pronounced " a masterly exposition of the inhumanity 
und unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave act." 

"tn 1851, he defended, at Detroit, fifty men on trial for con- 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 205 

spiracy, who could find but one lawyer in Michigan courageous 
enough to undertake their case. It was a four months' trial, 
involving the examination of four hundred witnesses, and he 
secured the acquittal of thirty-eight of the number. Besides 
all this professional labor, Mr. Seward did good service in 
various political campaigns ; especially in 1844, in favor of a 
tariff; against the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War; 
against disenfranchisement of foreign-born citizens, etc. In 
1846, he was largely instrumental in securing the calling of the 
convention for the revision of the Constitution of the State 
of New York. In September, 1847, he delivered, at New 
York, an address on the life and character of Daniel O'Connell, 
which was one of his finest efforts ; and in April, 1848, he 
pronounced, before the Legislature of New York, a touching 
and felicitous eulogy on John Quincy Adams. When General 
Taylor was nominated for the presidency, in 1848, Mr. Seward 
became one of the prominent public speakers, canva.ssing New 
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts, making, as here- 
tofore, the great principles of human freedom the central topioS 
of his speeches, and was everywhere greeted with the hearty and 
unanimous applause of his audience. Shortly aticr Taylor's 
election, Mr. Seward was elected to the Senate of the 
Thirty-first Congress, and soon became recognized as the 
foremost advocate of the administration policy — enjoying the 
intimacy and confidence of the President until his untimely 
decease. During the first session of this Congress, Mr. Seward 
took a prominent and very influential part in the contest which 
resulted in the passage of the Compromise act, and it was iu 
the discussion of these measures that he used the phrase " the 
Higher Law," which has achieved so great and wide-spread a 
significance. Three years before, he had said, in the Van Zandt 
case '' Congress had no power to inhibit any duty commanded 



9M jcE:?r o? OUB daT. 

bj God on. Moant SLoiii^ or bj bis Son. oa tJie jftooiic of Oi^vea,'' 
and ii(:)w (MarGfa. llth^ 1S6*)), speaking of tLe admissioa o£ 
California, he said, "'We hold no arbitrary aathority ov^r 
any thing, whether acquired lawfallj, or seized by osarpatioa. 
The Constitution regulates our stewardahip; the ConstimiEiott 
derotes the domain to unioo, to justice^ to defence, to welSir^ 
and to liberty. Bat there is a Higher Law than the Constitu- 
tion, -w-hich regulates our aathoriCy over the domain, and 
devotes it to the same noble purpose."' In short. Senator 
Seward waged an. "• irrepressible conflict^ against any com^prooiise 
of the slavery qaestion, a course of conduct which brought him 
not only into collision with the Democratic party, but also 
with Clay, "Webster, Fillmore, and other prominenc men. of his 
own party. From this time party lines became more sharply 
drawn between the Pro-Slavery men and Abolitionists ; and to the 
Soathemer, " Bill Seward,^ as be was caKed, became an object 
of abuse, m isrepreseatation, and open contempt, in many cases, 
when they passed him on the street. But this effort to ostracise 
him was utterly futile. His rare abilities and elevated charac- 
ter made him proof against the scorn and derision of little 
Boinds; he held the even tenor of his way, and on all great 
national questions he took a port in the debate, and even his 
eiemies could not but listen in admiration of his statesmanlike 
views. The subjects of Pablic Lands ; indemnities of French 
Spoliations; Kossuth; the survey of the Arctic and Piictfic 
Oceans; American Whale Fisheries; and American Steam 
Navigadoa; were handled by him, in public debate, with a 
grasp of intellect and a force of eloqaence worthy of his high 
reputation. During the Thirty-second Congress, Mr. Seward ad- 
vocated the Continental railroad, and opposed the r«novaI of 
duties from railroad iron ; and, in the summer of 1853, after ike 
adjoammeut found time, besides engaging in several importaalt 



airr. ic CainnLbiis. Ohia. an. "* Tlie DeacnT ^jl Anierica^" sznA 

Tine Boas o£ A mgrrt^an Ijnieptanioice."' Mtn. of wnieiL goe=€aB 
* value aejQtui :^ : jofi Triuuk eiiciiEd a^em. 

La. uiie T"T.r rrr-- , ^ , ^ ,-. tj-p q«Sv iie inuxHinceiL a aill air uhff csonr 
icnmuGiL if a. Paiiinc railEoad, ancULer irr e^fmhiifmins ssaus^ 
TiaiTff bs^reoL CaImxEiii% Ckoiay XapaiL^ ami tine Saoi&ndk 
"iiamis: beaiLis meosvirsS' aar aae aiiJioni^aciiUL of xhs 'ZsbS^ 
•nff Hi trriHgnpiitf BuL Vi?» DLjls t^Sin; mr cie TL^^riffr or une 
■ naarie. aii_ ere — eul dt Triiick 'thUu,«v.>, iowever. zav^ pLice ia» 
:iie xZL-abaorbing iiaias R OJL (IL Saiacor Dauslasi S^doraska. rvitl^ 
"▼nicii. in is neetiLe^ ja s&'T'^ m^ jvIlIl aH tiie pseaaa&sis ^wi 
•^owgrnil opposriaiL wiiicn. \fr. SfwaixL eauIicL rnnrrg aprrunsc is. 
The m ea .' ^ are. aoweve^ ▼^*s inaZv gaa rw i. Li ««imt?rm 33 31^ 
-l^-:<:r:ir± —-rsciijea nuuie an. tais laooic. \fr. Sevard prnmcrmiied 
:::...:-i- j^^ :Tf»-r -rnTniir:n j dolaaifis lon. EenTT *ZLi J ami L'aniel 
Wdbser. ami iin-ing: sae- aonmier <-&. lais jgar \Ii'>t; aH-iTV PTTHJ 
■ihe annual oracimL b^ns uie josarr siciedes of Tale CoZeae 
on. ■* Tne FlLTsea^. VtiroT, ani TTTmTpf?t:irnr -ieveiapnifflic 'or aie. 
^ Tit^rft^an Feaole ;~^ ami ac lie '^o mmffni^t^mfmi: e^aroiaea^ racavod 
ZAA ojQmirarx itigree ar Docscr of Laws. La. 'jcsaoer ajILawm'r. 
ae Tiinie ais iciebiaoBtL ami •siacorace arzTmeu; in. uie Ui- r . 
:aai:es ^Zireaic Canr:; in. ^ne •* MtiCorniick: Saan^ east.'* 
^urniff tie seefloii sesBiSL <il she iniirrv"-miixi ConsT'iffi. ^^ 
^ewarri in. adtiiiiun. ta nm tjoniiniied aii^^ncairr of -tTf ^sie '<^^^TTT^f 
rn-r'i. " •-■ ' ' ' Jc impravsnaic. sramaixsLT ofipcaed S^iuuziF 
r . r-rt:nng gavprnmem: o^eas in. die '^XRtmnnn.gf 

die I* iidiive ;^a.'7e acs, ami 2a"^re^ aia aSnnaiiv^ vate- ca a aoh- 
sirnDi propcsed. «Fiiring cae debaie. r^ealin^ lie F^iciriv* 
SaT? act iL LiC««L 

Li Febr-i:!!".-. 1^55. M^ . Seward: was r-r— . - _ : : ,... i. 



208 MEN rnr oUR DAY. 

for the term of six years, notwithstanding a most determined 
o-pposition from the " Know Nothing" or American party, and 
the Democratic party. Ilis election, which was everywhere 
considered as a triumph of the advocates of freedom, assumed 
a national interest ; and Mr. Seward was tendered public recep- 
tions at various places along his homeward route, after the ex- 
tra session of Congress, all of which, however, he respectfully 
declined. During the Slate canvass in the fall of 1855, he 
delivered at Albany, Auburn, and Buffalo, speeches in which 
the political issues of the times were sketched with a master's 
hand — and, having enjoyed an immense circulation in newspaper 
and pamphlet form, were still further honored by being the 
subject of allusion in President Pierce's annual message. On 
the 22d of December, 1855, Mr. Seward delivered, at Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, an address commemorative of the landing of the 
Pilgrim Fathers, well worthy of the occasion, and his own high 
reputation as a statesman and scholar. During the protracted 
debates on the Kansas difficulties, in the thirty- fourth session 
of Congress, Mr. Seward bore a conspicuous part ; his speeches 
being elaborate and exhaustive, and his labors indefatigable. 
The affairs of Kansas were also discussed by him, in two able 
speeches on the " Army bill," at the extra session in August. 
After the adjournment, he almost immediately plunged into the 
canvass of the coming Presidential election, in support of 
Fremont — two of his speeches, those delivered at Auburn and 
Detroit, displaying more than ordinary ability. Upon the re-as- 
sembling of Congress in December, he pronounced an eloquent 
and touching eulogium upon his old friend, Hon. John M. Clay- 
ton, and durins^ the session he advocated the claims of Revolu- 
tionary ofBcers; the prospect of government aid to the pro- 
posed Atlantic telegraph ; a bill for a telegraph line to Califor- 
nia aiid the Pacific coast; the overland mail rouie, and also the 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 500 

railroad to the Pacific ; a revision of the tariff, by which the 
popular interests should be protected, etc. He also reviewed 
the Dred Scott decision, and proposed such a re-organization of 
the United States courts, as should give all sections of the 
Union a more equable representation, and meet, more fully, the 
wants of the growing West. During the Thirty-fifth Congress, 
Mr. Seward spoke on a larger variety of subjects than usual ; 
opposing manfully the admission of Kansas into the Union 
under the " Lecompton Constitution," and from first to last, 
advocating the principle that the people of Kansas should be 
left perfectly free to decide upon their own organic law ; 
advocating the increase of the army in Utah for the suppression 
of rebellion there ; insisting upon reparation being demanded 
from the British Government for aggressions committed by their 
cruisers upon American vessels in the Mexican Gulf; favoring 
the admission of Minnesota and Oregon into the Union, aa 
States ; and various interesting speeches, more or less elaborate, 
upon the Pacific Railroad, Treasury Notes, the Walker 
" filibustering" expedition, rivers and harbors, and eulogiumS' 
upon Senators Rusk of Texas, Bell of New Hampshire, and J. 
Pinckney Henderson of Texas, of which the first named has 
been considered as one of the finest specimens of mortuary elo- 
quence ever delivered before that body. After the adjournment 
of Congress, Mr. Seward made an argument on the " Albany 
Bridge case," which added largely to his reputation, by the 
remarkable knowledge which it displayed of the subject of 
navigation and the constitutional questions involved. In the 
autumn campaigns of 1858, he displayed his usual ardor and 
ability in the canvnss for State officers and members of Congress, 
his speeches causing profound sensations, especially that at 
Rochester, New York, in which, speaking of the collision 

between the free and slave systems of labor, he said, 'Shall I 
14 



210 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

tell you wtat this collision means? Tbcy wlio think that it ia 
accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical 
agitatorij; and therefore ephemeral, mistake the ca.se altogethei. 
It is an irrepressible conjlict between opposing and enduring 
forces, and it means that the United States must and will, 
sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding natif^, 
or entirely a free-labor nation." These significant words were 
severely denounced by the Democrats as revolutionary and 
dangerous, but they became the rallying cry of the hosts of 
Freedom, and they have been more than vindicated by subse- 
quent events of our national history. Mr. Seward's services 
during the last session of the Thirty- fifth Congress, were ren- 
dered in behalf of those important and beneficent measures of 
which he was always a consistent and persistent friend, viz., the 
Homestead bill, the Pacific railroad, etc. In 1859, he made 
a second trip to Europe, to restore his health, impaired by 
incessant labor, and returning, devoted himself vigorouslj'-, in 
1860, to the canvass of the Western States, in behalf of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. He had, indeed, himself been the prominent 
candidate for the presidency, in the National Eepublican Con- 
vention of that year, his nomination being regarded as certain 
by his friends. On the second ballot he received one hundred 
and eighty-four and one half votes, but on the third was de- 
feated by Mr. Lincoln. During the same year he entertained at 
his table the Prinoe of Wales and his suite, who were then 
making a tour of the United States — on which occasion he 
casually intimated to his guests, in a jocular but significant 
remark — which was afterwards remembered when he was 
Secretary of State, during the civil war, that it would be a 
dangerous matter for England to meddle with the United States 
in any other way, than that of friendly rivalry. Mr. Seward 
had already foretold the " irrepressible conflict," and when it 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 211 

loomed up in still more threatening guise, and before the ex 
piration of his second senatorial term in March, 1861, he boldly 
asserted his position thus — " I avow my adherence to the 
Union with my friends, with my party, with my State, or with- 
out either, as they may determine ; in every event of peace or 
of war, with every consequence of honor or dishonor, of life 
or death." 

Immediately upon Mr. Lincoln's election to the presidency, he 
tendered to Mr. Seward the chief cabinet office, that of Secretary 
of State. It was accepted by the latter, and the difficult and 
perplexing duties which he thus assumed, were discharged with 
signal ability and success. Ilis judicious administration of the 
office during the early part of Mr. Lincoln's first term, tended 
more than any other cause, to ward ofl" intervention on the part 
of foreign powers, in the momentous struggle then going on 
between the Government and the rebellious States — and be 
challenged the respect and admiration of those powers them- 
selves, as well as of his own fellow-countrymen, by the fairness, 
ability, fulness, and broad statesmanship, with which he dis- 
cussed and settled the many perplexing and unprecedented 
questions which came under the notice of the State Department. 
Conspicuous among these, was the case of the demand by Great 
Britain for the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, rebel 
envoys who were forcibly taken by Captain Wilkes of the 
United States navy, from a British ship on which they were 
passengers, in the fall of 1861. Perhaps, at no time since the 
" War of 1812," • has danger of war between England and 
America been so imminent, as then. It was averted, however, by 
the judicious diplomacy of the secretary, who, while avoiding a 
v/ar by surrendering the rebel commissioners to Great Britain, 
on the ground, that, although they and their dispatches were in 
reality contraband of war, yet their captor had committed an 



212 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

irrejularity in not bringing the ship, and all on hoard, into port 
for adjudication — at the same time made the surrender a means 
of enforcing from that country, the never-before conceded right 
of the freedom of neutral flags on the high seas. 

It is well known that, during Mr. Lincoln's administration, 
Mr. Seward was, in most matters, the ruling spirit, an4 in 
general it must be admitted that he used his power well. There 
was dissatisfaction, not wholly causeless, ?.% the freedom with 
which he used the power of arbitrary arrest ; some complaint 
of the capricious, and at times not wholly respectful, manner in 
which he treated the representatives of the weaker foreign 
powers ; some displeasure at his apparently open defiance of 
Congress in relation to the Mexican question, in offering to 
recognize Maximilian, after Congress had voted by a large 
majority to give moral support only to the Juarez govern- 
ment. These and other measures of his, so greatly dissatisfied 
the Eepublicans, that at their National Convention in Baltimore, 
in 1864, they passed a resolution requesting the President to 
reconstruct his cabinet. Mr. Seward tendered his resignation, 
as did some of the other cabinet officers, but Mr. Lincoln, who 
knew well Mr. Seward's value in the cabinet, in sjjite of hia 
faults and errors, refused lo accept his resignation, and retained 
him in his place. 

Mr. Seward is by nature an optimist, always looking on the 
favorable side of a subject, and indulging, perhaps too much 
for the highest order of statesmanship, in glowing reveries and 
predictions of the wonderful growth, progress, and prosperity 
of our country in the immediate future. During the war, he 
excited some amusement by his oft repeated prophecies that 
it would close in sixty or ninety days. The second of these 
predictions, in his correspondence on the Mason and Slidell 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 213 

affair, furnished food for mirth among our enemies in tlie Britisti 
Parliament for years. 

After Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration, he re-appointed Mr. 
Seward for his second term, and in the closing events of the 
war in the east, the secretary rendered him great service. 

Early in April, 1865, while Mr. Seward was riding in his 
carriage, the horses became frightened and ran, and in attempt- 
ing to jump out, he was thrown to the ground, and his right 
arm was broken, and both sides of the lower jaw fractured. He 
was severely prostrated by this accident, and, for a time, serious 
fears were felt for his recovery. While thus confined to his 
bed, he narrowly escaped falling a victim to the fiendish plan 
of the conspirators who assassinated President Lincoln. Almost 
simultaneously with the attack upon Mr. Lincoln, an assassin 
forced his way into Mr. Seward's chamber, and striking down 
Mr. Frederick Seward, and overcoming the opposition of a 
male nurse, who was in attendance, reached the secretary's 
bedside and inflicted upon him three stabs in the face, which, 
however, failed of their deadly intent, although they greatly 
protracted his recovery. The assassin fled, but was subsequently 
arrested, convicted, and executed. 

There have been those, even among the strongest friends of 
Mr. Seward in the past, who have been so uncharitable as to 
regret, for his sake, that the assassin failed of the complete 
accomplishment of his purpose at that time ; for, they have 
argued, his career up to that time had been honorable to him-, 
self and a glory to the nation, and he would have died in the 
odor of sanctity, and with a martyr's halo around his brow, and 
have been remembered in all the future as the great statesman, 
who loved his country intensely, and laid down his life for her 
aake. 

Wilhout avowing any sympathy with this view, candor com- 



214 ME>r OF OUR DAY. 

pels us to say, that Mr. Seward's course since his recovery from 
those wounds of tlie assassin, was not wholly worthy of his previ- 
ous illustrious career. Forgetful, apparently, of his past intense 
loyalty and devotion to freedom, he sustained Mr. Johnson 
in every attempted usurpation of power; assumed a super- 
cilious tone in addressing the people, while yet their servant, 
was vacillating and self- contradictory in his intercourse 
with foreign powers, and attempted to distract the attention 
of Congress from the usurpations and crimes of his chief, by 
the purchase of extensive territories away from our previous geo- 
graphical limits, and of which we stood in no need. These pur- 
chases were made without any consulta'tions with Congress, 
and solely upon his own judgment ; the prices he offered for 
them were exorbitant, and they were understood to be but 
the stepping stones to further and still more extensive negotia- 
tions. His purchase from Russia of the territory of Alaska, for 
seven and a half millions of dollars in gold, was regarded by 
most of our people as unwise, but the negotiations had already 
proceeded so far, that it was consummated ; but when he pro- 
ceeded to buy from Denmark, at eight or ten times their value, 
the islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, the home of earth- 
quakes and hurricanes; entered upon negotiations w^ith San 
Domingo for the bay and harbor of Sam an a, and turned longing 
eyes upon the island of Cuba, all felt that his greed for land 
was growing too great to be longer tolerated, and his negotiations 
were brought to an ignoble conclusion. His ulterior object of 
distracting attention from Mr, Johnson's usurpations failed as 
signally, and he was involved, even more fully than any of his 
colleagues, in the disgrace of the President. 

We are glad to say that with his retirement from the cabinet 
in March, 1869, his eyes seemed to be opened to his departure 
from the principles to which his life had been for so many yeara 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 215 

devoted. With the glamour, which in official position had 
deceived him, removed from his vision, and the stern realities 
of a future life in which he must give an account of his steward- 
ship, confronting him, in feeble health and with a partially para- 
lysed body, this man prematurely old, from the hot fevers of 
partisan strife and political action, had leisure to review his 
career, and to see clearly the errors he had committed. When 
he had partially recovered from his illness, his active and rest- 
less spirit, impatient of confinement, led him, feeble as he still 
was, to undertake a journey round the world. Traversing first 
our neighbor republic of Mexico, where, notwithstanding his 
former inclination to recognize Maximilian's Empire, he was 
received with great cordiality and many honors, he subsequently 
traversed our Pacific States, and thence by steamer visited 
Japan, China, India, Palestine and Egypt, and the principal states 
of Europe. Everywhere he was received with high honor, and 
his ability and statesmanship fully recognized. In the autumn 
of 1871, he returned to his luxurious home at Auburn, and has 
since been engaged in the preparation for speedy publication of 
a narrative of his journeyings. 

He will, not in all probability, take any part hereafter in pub- 
lic or political life, and perhaps has no desire to do so ; but there 
is a lesson for all statesmen to learn from his career. While 
engaged in the defence of a great principle, the advocacy of a 
great right, or the attack on a great wrong, they can afford to 
sacrifice present popularity for the abiding and deliberate judg- 
ment of the future ; they can be sure that they will not long 
remain misunderstood ; but if these same statesmen when known, 
honored, and loved, depart. from the principles they have so long 
and fearlessly advocated, if tempted by the glittering gauds of 
office, fame and political power, they forget to practise those 
great doctrines which it has been their glory to sustain, no 



216 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

length of public service, no deeds of past patriotism, no lofty 
aspirations in the past, will save them from that deep and set- 
tled distrust, on the part of the masses, which will eventually 
bury them beneath the waters of oblivion. 

Mr. Seward, though a man of rare gifts and extraordinary 
talents, is not prepossessing in personal appearance ; small of 
stature, slender and pale, careless in dress and manner, and with 
an habitually sad expression of countenance, he wins confidence 
but slowly ; yet he has the art to attach his friends to him " as 
with hooks of steel." 

Let us hope that, when he shall sleep under the clods of the 
valley, there may be in the hearts of the people a kindly 
remembrance of his great services to his country during forty 
years and more of his public career, which shall partially, if it 
cannot wholly; conceal the errors of his later life. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX,- 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



^/| N the life history of this eminent statesman, so widely 
iM known and so universally beloved, we have another of 
those instances of which we have had so many in this 
volume, of a man rising by the power of genius and 
industry from humble life, and filling exalted stations with a 
grace, ease, and dignity, which could not be surpassed had he 
been "to the manor born." 

Schuyler Colfax comes from some of our best revolution- 
ary stock. His grandfather, Captain Colfax, was the command- 
ant of General Washington's body-guard ; his grandmother was 
a near kinswoman of that noble patriot of the Eevolution., 
Major-General Philip Schuyler. He was born in New York 
city, March 23d, 1823, his father having died in early manhood, 
a short time before his birth. When he was ten years old, his 
mother married again, becoming the " Mrs. Matthews," whom 
all recent habitues of Washington have seen presiding at her 
son's receptions. With this event the boy's school life closed, 
but the scanty term seems to have been well improved, for one 
of his early schoolmates tells us " Schuyler always stood at the 
head of his class." The next three years were spent in his step- 
father's store. In 1836, his stepfather having decided to emi- 

217 



218 JAEN OF OUR DAY. 

grate to the west, Schuyler accompanied his parents to the 
valley of the St. Joseph river, and they settled in New Carlisle, 
St. Joseph county, Indiana, The region was then a wilderness, 
but it is now densely populated, and its thrift, fertility, enterprise 
and beauty have made it the garden of the State. The five 
years which followed, were, we believe, spent as clerk in a 
country store. His disposition to study was inbred, and every 
leisure moment was improved. A friend and companion of hia 
boyhood, in New York, now an active business man and 
philanthropist, tells us that, in those days, he and Schuyler 
Colfax kept up an active correspondence, and that Schuyler's 
letters always spoke of the studies he was prosecuting by him- 
self in the wilderness, and were full of knotty questions, which 
both tried their best to solve. 

In 1841, his stepfather, Mr. Matthews, was elected county 
auditor, and removed to South Bend. Schuyler became his 
deputy, and made such studious use of his leisure, that when 
but little more than eighteen, he became undisputed authority 
on precedents, usage, and State laws afi'ecting the auditor's duties. 
He was also very busily engaged in the study of law at this 
time. A debating society, that inevitable necessity of American 
village life, was organized at South Bend in 1843, and, on some 
one's suggestion, it was transformed into a moot State Legis- 
lature, of which Hon. J. D. Defrees, since government printer, 
was speaker, and young Colfax an active member. The rules 
of parliamentary debate, and the decisions of points of order, 
were followed with amusing punctiliousness in this body, and 
Colfax, who had improved his previous familiarity with these 
matters, by two years' service as Senate reporter for the State 
Journal, soon became the acknowledged authority on aH 
parliamentary questions, and was thus unconsciously qualifying 
himself for that pust he has since so ably filled. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 219 

In 1845, he started a weekly journal at South Bend, the 
county seat, with the title of the St. Joseph Valley Register^ be- 
coming its sole proprietor and editor. In this connection it is 
doubtless proper to correct a mistake into which the public has 
fallen relative to Mr. Colfax's connection with the printing busi- 
ness. Mr. Lanman, in his Dictionary of Congress, says: — "He 
was bred a printer." He never was apprenticed to the printing 
business, and knew nothing of the practical part of the " art pre- 
servative of all arts," until after he had commenced the publica- 
tion of the Register. With his ready tact and quick perception, 
however, and great anxiety to economise, for his means were yet 
very limited, he soon mastered the art sufficiently to " help out 
of the drag ;" but he never attained to any great proficiency in 
the business ; his editorial labors, the business of the office, and 
other duties, soon claiming his entire attention. 

The Register prospered, and soon became a source of profit to 
its proprietor. It was ably edited, and was a model of courtesy 
and dignity. Every paragraph, however small, seemed to have 
passed under the supervision, and to reflect the mind and ele- 
vated thoughts of its editor. 

How he toiled at this time, and what was the opinion of the 
people of South Bend of the young editor, are very pleasantly 
related by Mr. Samuel Wilkeson, in a speech at a press dinner, 
in Washington, in 1865, at which Mr. Colfax was an honored 
guest. 

"Eighteen years ago, at one o'clock of a winter moon-lighted 
morning, while the horses of the stage-coach in which I was 
plowing the thick mud of Indiana, were being changed at the 
tavern in South Bend, as I walked the footway of the principal 
street to shake off a great weariness, I saw a light through a 
window. A sign, ' The Register,^ was legible above it, and I saw 
through the window a man in his shirt sleeves walking quickly 



220 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

about like one that worked. I paused, and looked, and 
imagined about the man, and about his work, and about the 
lateness of the hour to which it was protracted ; and I wondered 
if he was in debt, and was struggling to get out, and if his wife 
was expecting him, and had lighted a new candle for his coming, 
and if he was very tired. A coming step interrupted this idle 
dreaming. When the walker reached my side, I joined him, 
and ai we went on I asked him questions, and naturally they were 
about the workman in the shirt sleeves. ' "What sort of a man 
is he?' 'He is very good to the poor; he works hard ; "le is 
sociable with all people ; he pays his debts ; he is a safe adviser; 
he doesn't drink whisky ; folks depend on him ; all this part of 
Indiana believes in him.' From that day to this, I have never 
taken up the South Bend Register without thinking of this 
eulogy, and envying the man who had justly entitled himself to 
it in the dawn of his manhood." 

Mr. Colfax himself, in his reply to this speech, acknowledged 
that in the early history of the newspaper, which numbered but 
two hundred and fifty subscribers when he established it, he 
was often compelled to labor far into the hours of the night. 
His paper was, from the first. Whig in its politics, and frank nnd 
outspoken in its expression of opinion on all political questions, 
but though in a district then strongly Democratic, and sur- 
rounded by Democratic papers which waged a constant, and often 
unscrupulous warfare against his paper and his principles, the 
constant readers of his paper cannot recall a single harsh or 
intemperate expression in his columns, in reply to the fierce 
personal attacks made upon him. 

In the year 18-i8, Mr. Colfax was appointed a delegate from 
his adopted State to the Whig National Convention, of which 
he was elected secretary, and although extremely young, he 
discharged the functions of his office commendably. Tn 1850, 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 221 

he was elected a member of the Indiana State Convention, hav- 
ing for its object the preparation of a State Constitution. Here 
he persistently opposed the nnmanJj clause prohibiting freo 
colored men from entering the State. This clause, submitted 
separately to the people, was indorsed by majorities of eight 
thousand in his district' and ninety thousand in the State, yet, 
where a mere political trimmer would have waived the personal 
issue, he, like a man, openly voted with the minority, though he 
was at the time a candidate for Congress. In 1851, unanimously 
nominated from the ninth district of Indiana, he made a joint 
canvass with his opponent. Dr. Fitch, and, solely on account of 
this vote, was defeated by two hundred and sixteen majority, 
although the district had been Democratic, by large majorities, 
for many years. 

In 1852, he was again sent as a delegate to the Whig 
National Convention, of which also he was appointed secretary. 
In 1854, Mr. Colfax was elected to Congress as a Eepublican 
nominee ; and from that time to the present, he has always occu- 
pied his seat as a Kepresentative. 

At the opening of the Thirty-fourth Congress occurred the 
memorable contest for the speakership, resulting in the election 
of Mr. Banks to that position. During that session Mr. Colfax 
took his stand as one of the most promising of our Congres- 
sional debaters. His speech, upon the then all-absorbing topic of 
the extension of slavery and the aggressions of the slave power, 
was a masterly effort, and stamped him at once as a most influ- 
ential orator. This speech was circulated throughout the coun- 
try at the time, and was used as a campaign document by tho 
Fremont party during the canvass of 1856. Five hundred 
thousand copies of it were issued, a compliment perhaps never 
before received by any member of Congress. 

Mr. Colfax labored zealously for John C Fremont, who was 



222 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

his personal friend ; the result of that campaign is well known. 
In the Thirty-fifth Congress, Mr. Colfax was elected to the im- 
portant position of Chairman to the Committee on Post-Offices 
and Post Roads, which place he continued to hold until his elec- 
tion as Speaker to the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 7th of 
December, 1853, to which responsible position he was subse- 
quently twice re-elected — to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Con- 
gresses — honors awarded before only to Henry Clay. 

As Speaker of the House of Representatives he was ready, 
seldom hesitating to replace a word, or failing to touch the quick 
of a question, never employing any words for stage effect; but 
straightforward, direct, and often exquisitely elegant in image 
and diction, he was, in the genuine sense, eloquent. His every 
speech was a success, and though one often wondered how he 
would extricate himself, in the varied and often untimely calls 
made upon his treasury, he always closed with added wealth of 
gratified admirers. If George Canning was once the Cicero of 
the British Senate, Schuyler Colfax was equally that of the 
American House. 

In the chair, lie was suave and forbearing almost to excess, but 
as impartial as the opposite Congressional clock. Nothing 
escaped him, nothing nonplussed him. The marvel of his pre- 
siding watchfulness was equaled alone by the intuitive, rapid solu 
tion of the knotty point suddenly presented, and having either 
no precedent, or, at best, but a very distant one. In every quan- 
dary, the Indiana Legislature,. or the Journal reporter, or the 
persistent student of Jefferson or Cushing, or all, rally to the 
rescue of the wondering House and still "smiling chairman. The 
advocate is never confused with the judge. While presiding, 
it is as difficult to remember, as when debating to forget, that 
be is radically a Radical. 

H(? was one of the first advocates, and is still one of the 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 223 

warmest friends of the Pacific railroad. Indeed, he takes a 
warm interest in any movement looking to the development of 
the boundless resources of the great West. It was, doubtless, 
the interest he felt in that section of the country, which induced 
him to take his celebrated journey "Across the Continent." His 
trip was a perilous one, but his welcome at " the other end of the 
line" was so spontaneous, truly genuine and heartfelt, that it 
more than repaid him for all the dangers and hardships he 
passed through. This tour led him to prepare one of the most 
entertaining lectures ever delivered in this country. It was lis- 
tened to with rapt attention by the people of almost every city 
in the North. Pecuniarily, however, it was of but little profit 
to him, for with that liberality which has ever been a marked 
trait in his character, the entire proceeds of a lecture were 
oftener donated to some charitable purpose than retained for his 
own emolument. 

His intimacy and confidential relations with Mr. Lincoln are 
well known. They labored hand in hand as brothers in the 
cause of the Union, holding frequent and protracted interviews 
on all subjects looking to the overthrow of the rebellion, for 
there were no divisions between the executive and legislative 
branches of the Government, then, as there have been since. A 
patriot was at the head of the Government then — a statesman 
who could give counsel, but often needed it as well. During the 
darkest hours of that bloody drama which cast so deep a shadow 
over the hearts and homes of the nation, they were ever cheer- 
ful and hopeful. Confident in the justness of the war waged for 
the preservation of the Union, and placing a Christian reliance 
in that Providence which guides and shapes the destiny of 
nations, great reverses, which caused others to fear and tremble, 
at times almost to despair, seemed only to inspire them with 



224 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

greater zeal and a firmer belief in the ultimate triumph of our 
cause. 

There has not been a great radical measure before the country, 
since his advent into Congress, that Mr. Colfax has not sup- 
ported with all the warmth of his nature. But he is not one 
who will rush blindly forward into a pitftxll. He would rather 
make haste slowly, that no backward step may be necessary — he 
would duly weigh every measure in all its bearings, and from 
its various standpoints, before committing himself wholly to any 
particular line of action relative to the subjects under considera- 
tion. Previous to his reelection as Speaker of the Thirty-ninth 
Congress, in response to a serenade tendered him, he said : 

" The danger is in too much precipitation. Let us, rather, make 
haste slowly, and then we can hope that the foundation of our 
Government, when thus reconstructed on the basis of indisputa- 
ble loyalty, will be as eternal as the stars," 

Had this warning been heeded, much of the legislation of the 
Thirty-ninth Congress would have needed no revision at the 
hands of that which has succeeded it. 

His course, while in the great council of the nation, was one 
of straightforward, unswerving integrity; and he counted many 
friends among even his political opponents. He so discharged 
the important duties of the speakership, that he was considered 
one of the best presiding oflUcers that has ever been called upan 
to conduct the proceedings of a great body. 

Mr. Colfax is only forty-nine years of age. In personal ap- 
pearance, he is of medium height, solid and compactly built. 
His hair and whiskers are brown, now a little tinged with gray. 
His countenance has a pleasing and intellectual expression. His 
person is graceful, and his manner denotes unusual energy. His 
eyebrows are light in color, and overshadow eyes which sparkle 
with intelligence and good-humor. He is strongly affectionate 



SCHUYLER COLrAX, 225 

Had kindly in disposition. Whenever his mother-in-law appeared 
ia the gallery of the House, Mr. Colfax generally called some 
member to the chair, and went immediately to her side. Such a 
trait in his character serves still further to deepen the respect 
and esteem in which he is held everywhere. 

As a speaker, Mr. Colfax is earnest, frank, pointed and fluent. 
His manner is pleasing, and his language is always well-chosen 
and refined. Urbane in demeanor, and courteous and fair to- 
ward opponents, he always commanded respect and attention on 
both sides of the House. He is zealous and fearless in main- 
taining his principles, though his benevolence and good-humor 
so temper his speeches that he gains few or no enemies. He ia 
one of the few whose personal qualities have secured exemption 
from the bitterness of feeling generally displayed by the friends 
of pro-slavery aggression toward their opponents. He seldom, 
indulges in oratorical flourish, but goes straight to his subject, 
which, with his keenly perceptive intellect, he penetrates to the. 
bottom ; while his close, logical reasoning presents his aspect of ' 
a question in its strongest light. 

On the question, " Shall freedmen be citizens, and be allowedi 
the right of suffrage?" he took an early opportunity of avowing, 
his views. At the opening of the second session of the Thirty- 
ninth Congress, he said : " The Creator is leading us in his own 
way rather than our own. He has put all men on an equality 
before Divine law, and demands that we shall put all men upon 
the same equality before human law." 

In an address delivered in 1867, before the Union Lcaguo' 
club of New York, we find these eloquent passages: — 

" How rapidly and yet how gloriously we are making history ; 
but posterity will read it on the open pages of our country's an- 
nals. Sfx years ago — how brief it seems — but a fraction of an 

individual's life — but a breath in the life of a nation — the banners 
15 



226 MEN OF OUR DAY 

of rebellion waved over the hostile armies and stolen forts from 
the Potomac to the Kio Grande, and the on- looking world 
predicted the certain downfall of the Republic. Now, thanks 
to our gallant armies and their gallant commanders— Grant the 
inflexible — Sherman the conqueror — Sheridan the invincible — - 
and all their compatriots on sea and shore — but one flag waves 
over the land — the flag that Washington loved, and that Jack- 
son, and Scott, and Taylor adorned with their brilliant victories 
— the flag dearer to us in all its hours of peril than when gilded 
by the sunshine of prosperity and fanned by the zephyrs of 
peace, at last triumphant, unquestioned, unassailed. Six years 
ago, millions of human beings born on American soil, created 
by the same Divine Father, destined to the same eternal here- 
after, were subject to sale like the swine of the sty, or the beasts 
of the field, and our escutcheon was dimmed and dishonored 
by the stain of American Slavery. To-day^ auction-blocks, and 
manacles, and whipping-posts are, thank God, things of the 
past, while the slave himself has become the citizen, with the 
freedman's weapon of protection — the ballot — in his own right 
hand. Nor can we forget, while rejoicing over this happy 
contrast, the human agencies so potential to its accomplishment. 
First, and conspicuous among the rest, rises before my mind the 
tall form of a martyred President, whose welcome step no 
mortal ear shall ever listen to again. Faithful to his oath, 
faithful to his country, faithful to the brave armies his word 
called to the field, he never swerved a hair's breadth from his 
determination to crush this mighty rebellion, and all that gives 
it aid, and comfort, and support. Unjustly and bitterly de- 
nounced, by his enemies and yours, as a usurper and despot ; 
compared to Nero and Caligula, and all other tyrants whose 
base deeds blacken the pages of history, your noble League 
stood by him amid this tempest of detraction, cordially and to 



SCHUYLER COLFAX, 227 

che end; and you have now your abundant vindication and 
reward. Though the torch of slander was lit at every avenue 
of his public life while he lived, the civilized world would 
become mourners at his coffin ; and with those libelous tongues 
hushed, our whole land enshrines his memory to-day with the 
Father of the Country he saved." 

"I cannot doubt the future of the great party which has won 
these triumphs and established these principles. It has been so 
brilliantly successful, because it recognized liberty and justice' 
as its cardinal principles ; and because, scorning all prejudices 
and defying all opprobrium, it allies itself to the cause of the 
humble and the oppressed. It sought to enfranchise, not to 
enchain; to elevate, not to tread down; to protect, never to 
abuse. It cared for the humblest rather than for the mightiest 
— for the weakest rather than the strongest. It recognized 
that the glory of states and nations was justice to the poorest 
and feeblest. And another secret of its wondrous strength was 
that it fully adopted the striking injunction of our murdered 
chief: ' With malice toward none, with charity for all, but with 
firmness for the right, as God gives us to see the right.' Only 
last month the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in defend- 
ing his Keform bill, which holds the word of promise to the ear 
to break it to the hope, exclaimed : ' This is a nation of classes, 
and must remain so.' If I may be pardoned for replying, I 
would say : ' This is a nation o1 freemen^ and it must remain so.' 
Faithful to the traditions of our fathers in sympathizing with 
all who long for the maintenance or advancement of liberty in 
Mexico or England, in Ireland or Crete, and yet carefully 
avoiding all entangling alliances or violations of the law, with a 
recognition from ocean to ocean, ISTdrth and South alike, of the 
right of all citizens bound by the law to share in the choice of 



228 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the law-maker, and thus to have a voice in the country their 
heart's blood must defend, our centennial anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence will find us as an entire nation, 
recognizing- the great truths of that immortal Magna Gharta^ 
enjoying a fame wide as the world and eternal as the stars, 
with a prosperity that shall eclipse in future all the brightest 
glories of the past." 

Religion gained the early adherence of Mr, Colfox, who many 
years ago began a Christian life, joining the Dutch Eeformed 
Church, and serving humbly and usefully as a Sunday school 
teacher for twelve years. The "pious passages" so frequent iu 
his public speeches are not mere sentiment or oratorical arts, 
for he loves to talk, in private, of how God rules and how 
distinctly and how often, in our history, his holy arm has been 
revealed ; and the ascription of praise comes from a worship- 
ping heart, reliant on God through Christ. His personal ex- 
ample at Washington is luminous. When twenty, he made 
vows of strict, abstinence, which have never been broken. 
Liquors and wines are never used at his receptions, while 
Presidential dinners and diplomatic banquets are utterly power- 
less to abate one jot or tittle of his firmness. Many of our 
readers well remember his speech at a Congressional temper- 
ance meeting, and how he banished the sale of liquor from 
all parts of the Capitol within his jurisdiction. 

On the 21st of May, 1868, the National Republican Union 
Convention, in session at Chicago, nominated Mr. Colfax as 
their candidate for the vice-presidency, on the fifth ballot, his 
name receiving five hundred and twenty-two votes out of the 
six hundred and fifty polled. 

At the Presidential election, November 3d, 1868, General 
Grant and Mr. Colfax were elected President and Yice-Presi- 
dent, and on the 4th of March, 1869, Mr. Colfax took his seat as 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 229 

President of the Senate, and his inaugural oath as Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. The President of the Senate is not 
like the Speaker of the House, an elected member of the body 
over which he presides, and hence can take no part in the dis- 
cussions of that body, nor is he allowed any other than a casting 
vote. The rules of the Senate are also very different from those 
of the House, and of late years it has lost its ancient reputation 
for dignity and decorum, and under the lead of some of its less 
discreet members, has seemed to be striving to win from the 
House its old name of reproach, " the National Bear Garden." 

To preside successfully over such a body is even a more diffi- 
cult task under the circumstances, than over the more boister- 
ous, but at the same time more easily controlled. House of Rep- 
resentatives. Yet in a position which some of the ablest parli- 
amentarians had found exceedingly difficult, and among men 
who sometimes regard themselves as entirely above the law, it 
is much to his credit that Vice-President Colfax has presided 
with an easy dignity and grace which has been recognized by all 
classes as wholly without partiality, and has furnished no grounds 
of complaint. His excessive labors at one time broke down 
his health, and compelled him to take a long rest ; but. his tem- 
perate habits, his systematic and methodical ways, and his vigo- 
rous constitution enabled him to recover his health completely. 

In 1870, Mr. Colfax wrote to a friend in New York declaring 
his purpose to withdraw forever from public life at the close of 
his present term of office. This letter was published and vari- 
ously commented on by the press. Subsequently the urgency 
of his friends induced him to reconsider this intention, and suf- 
fer his name to be brought before the Philadelphia National 
Republican Convention; but this was done at so late a date that 
Senator Wilson, who had been a competitor for the nomination 
in 1868, had a decided advantage, and was nominated by a small 
majority on the first ballot, at Philadelphia. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 




I HAT can you raise here?" iDquired a distinguislietl 
English asfriculturist, of a friend, a citizen of Maine, as 
they were traversing the rocky, iron-bound coast, 
against which the North Atlantic dashes its waves in 
summer and winter. " Your soil seems so rocky and sterile 
that no crops will thrive in it. What can you grow ?" " We 
raise men," was the proud reply. Yes, the sunrise State does 
raise men^ and one of the best of her products, was the man 
whose history we propose here to sketch briefly. 

Hannibal Hamlin was born in Paris, Maine, August 27th, 
1809. His ancestors were from Massachusetts, and of Puritan 
and revolutionary stock. His grandfather, Eleazar Hamlin, 
commanded a company of minute men in the revolution, and 
had five sons enrolled under him, some of whom served 
through the whole war. Cyrus, one of the sons of Eleazar 
Hamlin, studied medicine, married and settled at Livermore, 
Oxford county, Maine, where he acquired a very extensive 
practice, and was also clerk of the courts for Oxford county, 
for a number of years. Hannibal was the sixth son of Dr. 
Cyrus Hamlin, and, from his boyhood, was a studious, manly 
-boy. His brothers have, several of them, attained distinction. 
His eldest brother, Elijah, has long been one of the most promi- 
nent men of the State ; Cyrus, another brother, is well known 

as a missionary of the American Board, at Constantinople, and 
230 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 231 

is now at tlie head of the Eobert college there. Few men have 
been more widely useful. It was the intention of Dr. Hamlin 
to give Hannibal a collegiate education, and before he was six- 
teen, he was nearly fitted for college, when the failure of hia 
brother Cyrus's health led to a change of plans, and he com- 
menced the study of medicine, while Hannibal remained at 
home to labor on the farm, employing the winter in surveying 
a township of forest land on Dead river, which his father and 
others had purchased. When he was eighteen years of age, hia 
father directed him to undertake the study of law, with his 
brother Elijah. He commenced his studies, but at the end of 
six or eight months, his father died, and he returned home, and 
labored on the farm, for the next two years. He was next, for 
about a year, joint proprietor and editor with Horatio King, 
afterwards assistant postmaster general, of a Democratic news- 
paper. The Jeffersonian^ published at Paris, the county seat of 
Oxford county. To this paper he contributed both prose and 
poetical articles. But his inclination was still to the study of 
the law, and having sold out his interest in the paper, he entered, 
with his mother's sanction, the office of Hon. Joseph G. Cole, 
and, for the next three years, prosecuted his legal studies with 
him and with the firm of Fessenden, Deblois, and Fessenden, 
the junior partner being the late Senator from Maine. In 
January, 1833, he was admitted to the Oxford county bar, and 
mimediately commenced a successful practice, which continued 
to increase until 1851, when he relinquished farther practice of 
his profession. He soon after removed to Hampden, a flourish- 
ing village six miles below Bangor, on the Penobscot, and 
married the same year. From 1836 to 1810, he was each year 
elected to the State Legislature, and in 1837, 1839, and 1810, was 
speaker of the House, In 1810, he was the Democratic candi- 
date for Representative in Congress, but was defeated by about 



232 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

two hundred votes. In 1843, he was again a candidaf.e and 
was elected by about a thousand majority. 

Though elected as a Democrat, and voting with that party on 
all other questions, Mr. Hamlin, from the commencement of his 
Congressional career, uniformly opposed the extension and 
aggressions of slavery. His first speech in Congrera was in 
opposition to the twenty-first rule, by which abolition petitions 
were excluded ; and he ably and strenuously opposed the 
annexation of Texas, not because he was averse to new acces- 
sions of territory, but because the bill provided for the exten- 
sion of slavery there. His speech, in opposition to the annexa- 
tion on these terms, was one of remarkable eloquence, and its 
defence of New England against the attacks of southern mem- 
bers, was one of the finest passages of parliamentary oratory. 
"I am sure, sir," he said, "that the hardy sons of the ice-bound 
region of New England, have poured out their blood without 
stint, to protect the shores of the South, or to avenge her 
wrongs. Their bones are even now bleaching beneath the sun, 
on many a southern hill ; and the monuments of their brave 
devotion may still be traced, wherever their country's flag has 
floated on the battle field, or the breeze, upon the lakes, the 
ocean, and the land : — 

" ' New England's dead ! New England's dead ! 

On every field they lie, 
On every field of strife made red, 

With bloody victory ! 
Their bones are on our northern hills, 

And on the sonthern plain; 
By brook and river, mount and rills, 

And in the sounding main.' 

" I glory in New England and New England's institutions. 
There she stands, with her free schools, and her free labor, her 
fearless enterprise, her indomitable energy ! With her rocky 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN". 233 

hills, her torrent streams, her green valleys, her heaven pointed 
spires ; there she stands a moral monument around which the 
gratitude of her country binds the wreath of fame, while pro- 
tected freedom shall repose forever at its base." 

Mr. Hamlin was re-elected to Congress in 1844, and though 
known mainly as a working, rather than a talking member, 
(and his reputation was of the highest, as an efl&cieut business 
man,) he took some part in the debates, handling the most im- 
portant questions with great ability. Among the topics on 
which he spoke were the public land question ; on giving 
notice to the British Government to termiiKite the joint occu- 
pancy of Oregon ; on the mode of raising troops for the Mexican 
war; on the mode of increasing the army, and on establishing a 
territorial government for Oregon. He also offered the Wilmot 
Proviso as an amendment to the famous " three million bill." 

On his return home he served for one session in the Maine 
Legislature, and in May, 1848, was elected to fill the vacancy 
in the United States Senate, caused by the death of Ex-Gover- 
nor Fairfield. In July, 1851, he was again chosen Senator, 
for the full term, by the Democrats and Free Soilers. His 
decided opposition to slavery had alienated a few of the pro- 
slavery Democrats in the Legislature, but their place was more 
than supplied by the Free Soilers, who held the balance of 
power in the Maine Legislature at this time. 

In the Senate, Mr. Hamlin almost immediately took a 
position as one of the ablest members of that body. He was 
not given to participating in the debates on trivial matters, but 
on the great questions of the time he usually gave his care- 
fully considered views, and they commanded the attention and 
respect of the entire Senate. As a working member, he had 
no superior; he was chairman of the very important Committee 
on Commerce, from 1849 till his resignation of that position in 



234 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

1856, on an occasion to be presently noticed, and drew up and 
matured many of the bills which have proved so beneficial 
fco our national commerce. He was also chairman of the Com- 
mittee on the District of Columbia, and an active member of 
other important committees. He was outspoken and decided in 
his efforts for the repression of slavery, and in opposition to its 
aggressive tendencies, and the purpose of its friends to extend it 
over all the new territories, from his entrance ir-io the Senate. 
One of his earliest speeches, in 1848, on the bill providing a 
territorial government for Oregon, denounced in strong and 
manly terms this purpose of the pro-slavery men, and in the 
debates on the admission of California, he was equally explicit 
and earnest. He advocated in the same session the abolition of 
the practice of flogging in the navy. On commercial topics, his 
most important and effective speeches were, on the ocean mail 
service ; on regulating the liabilities of ship owners ; on providing 
for the greater security of lives on steamboats ; in defence of 
the river and harbor bill ; for the codifications of the revenue 
laws, etc. 

Up to 1856, Mr. Hamlin had acted with the Democratic party 
on all questions, except those connected with the extension of 
slavery, directly or indirectly. He opposed the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise, the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and the 
Fugitive Slave act, but in all these, others affiliated with that 
party had acted with him ; but the time came, at the national 
Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, in June, 1856, when that 
party succumbed to the slave power, and delivered themselves 
over to the rule and dictation of the South ; then Mr. Hamlin 
felt that he must sever the ties which had hitherto bound him 
to them. He took the first opportunity of doing this which 
olfered, rising in his place in the Senate, June 12th, 1856, and 
resigning his position as chairman of the Committee on Com- 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 235 

merce, and assigning as liis reason, that after the platform and 
resolutions adopted by the convention at Cincinnati, he could 
no longer maintain political associations with a party which in- 
sisted on such doctrines. Thenceforward, he became identified 
with the Republican party. Two or three weeks later he was 
nominated by the Republicans for Governor of Maine, and 
made a personal canvass of the State, speaking nearly one 
hundred times in the different counties. The Democrats had 
carried the State by a large majority the year before, and were 
then in power, but Mr. Hamlin was elected in September, 1856, 
by an absolute majority of eighteen thousand over both the 
competing candidates, and of twenty-three thousand over his 
Democratic competitor, more than double the majority ever 
given to any other candidate in that State. On the 7th of 
January, 1857, he resigned his seat in the Senate and was the 
same day inaugurated Governor of Maine. Nine days later, 
January 16th, 1857, he was a third time elected to the Senate, 
for the term of six years from March ith, 1857, and on the 20th 
of February resigned the office of governor, and took his seat 
again in the Senate, on the 4th of March. During the next four 
years, he was the active and eloquent defender of Republi- 
can principles in the United States Senate, discussing the 
Kansas question with consummate ability, attacking the Le- 
compton Constitution, replying with great pungency and effect to 
Senator llammond's " mud-sill" speech, and repealing his assaults 
upon the free laborers of the North. He also exposed the unfair- 
ness and gross sectional partiality of the Democratic majority 
in the Senate, in the formation of the committees, and, in an able 
speech, defended American rights in regard to the fisheries. 

On the 18th of May, 1860, at the Republican National Conven- 
tion at Chicago, Mr. Hamlin was nominated as the candidate of the 
party for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. 



236 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

The nomination was entirely unexpected by Mr, Hamlin and 
took him completely by surprise. It was made spontaneously 
and with great unanimity. The ticket was elected, and on the 
4th of March, 1861, in the midst of civil commotion and the 
loud muttering of the storm which was so soon to burst upon 
the nation. President and Vice-President were inaugurated. 
During the four years that followed, Mr, Hamlin was the 
President's right hand ; calm, patient, clear-headed and far-seeing, 
he was able to give wise counsel, and enjoyed, throughout his 
administration, Mr. Lincoln's fullest confidence. It is said that 
in the history of our country, there has been but one other 
instance, in which there was full and perfect harmony between 
the President and Vice-President, and that was in the case of 
President Jackson and Vice-President Van Buren. As the pre- 
siding officer of the Senate, he has rarely, if ever, been equalled 
in the skill with which he conducted its proceedings and the 
dignity with which he guided its deliberations. So thorough 
was his knowledge of parliamentary rules and usages, and of the 
precedents of senatorial action, that not a single ruling of his, 
during the four years of his presidency over the Senate, was 
ever over-ruled by that body, and on his taking leave of it all 
parties united in testifying to his courtesy and impartiality. 

At the Baltimore National Republican Convention, in 186-i, it 
was at first proposed to nominate Mr, Hamlin again to the vice- 
presidency, which he had filled so well; there was nothing to be 
objected to in his conduct, and very much to praise; but it was 
represented that the position belonged, by right, to some loyal 
representative of the border, or seceded States, and this view 
prevailing, Andrew Johnson was nominated. It has been well 
said, that "with Hannibal Hamlin in the vice-presidency, either 
Mr. Lincoln would not have been assassinated, or we should 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 237 

have been spared the trouble, discord, and disgrace wliich haa 
followed." 

In July, 1865, Mr. Johnson appointed Mr. Hamlin collector 
of the port of Boston, the most lucrative office in New England. 
He held the position about thirteen months, when becoming 
convinced that Mr. Johnson had deserted the party which 
elected him, and abandoned its principles, he felt that he could 
not retain the office, without danger of being identified with 
Mr. Johnson's treachery, and resigned it in the following manly 
letter. 

" Custom House, Boston, Collector's Office, Aug. 28, 1866. 
" To the President : — 

" One year ago you tendered to me, unsolicited on my part, 
the position of collector of customs, for the District of BovSton 
and Charlestown. I entered upon the duties of the office, and 
have endeavored faithfully to discharge the same, and I trust in 
a manner satisfactory to the public interested therein, 

" I do not fail to observe the movements and efforts which 
have been, and are now being made to organize a party in the 
country, consisting, almost exclusively, of those actively engaged 
in the late rebellion, and their allies, who sought by other means 
to cripple and embarrass the Government. These classes of 
persons, with a small fraction of others, constitute the organiza- 
tion. It proposes to defeat and overthrow the Union Republi- 
can party, and to restore to power, without sufficient guaranties 
for the future, and protection to men who have been loyal, those 
who sought to destroy the Government. 

" I gave all the influence I possessed to create and uphold the 
Union Republican party during the war, and without the aid 
of which our Government would have been destroyed, and the 
rebellion a success. 

*' With such a party as has been inaugurated, and for such 
purposes, I have no sympathy, nor can I acquiesce in ita 
measures by my silence. I therefore tender to you my resig- 
nation of the office of collector of customs, for the District of 



238 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

Boston and Ch.irlestown, to take effect irom the time when a 
successor shall be appointed and qualified. 

*' Eespectfully yours, 

"H.HAMLIN." 

After his resignation, Mr. Hamlin engaged in the political 
canvass in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maine, in the autumn 
of 1860, and then returned to his home in Bangor, Maine, where 
he remained, engaged in the management of his estate, taking 
part, however, in the political campaign in New Hampshire and 
Connecticut in the spring of 1868. Mr. Hamlin was the first 
choice of several of the States for the vice-presidency in the 
National Convention of May, 1868, and it is no discredit to the 
other eminent and able candidates, to say that no man could 
have filled the office better than he. 

In the session of the Maine Legislature, in the winter of 1869, 
Mr. Hamlin was a fourth time elected United States Senator 
from that State, which position he still holds. He has been 
throughout, a decided supporter of President Grant's adminis- 
tration. 

Mr. Hamlin is about six feet in height, though apparently 
less, in consequence of his having a slight stoop. His athletic 
and robust form gives a just indication of his great physical 
energy and power of endurance. His complexion is dark, and 
his eyes are of a piercing blackue^is.* His voice is clear, strong, 
melodious in its tones, a.nd his delivery rapid, energetic, and 
highly effective. He speaks without verbal preparation, but 
without any embarrassment, and with remarkable directness. 

* The southern pohtical speakers and leaders in the presidential cam- 
paign of 18G0, circulated the report widely throughout the South, and it 
was extensively credited tJiere, that Mr. Ilaml-n was a mulatto, and that the 
Repullicans had nominated him for the pumose of inciting the negroes to 
rise in rebellion against their masters. Mr. Hamlin's dark complexion was 
the only thing which gave the slightest phiusibility to this story. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 239 

Always talking to the point, and never for mere effect, lie is 
invariably listened to with respect and attention. As a popular 
orator, he has great power and eloquence. His manners, though 
dignified and decorous, are still remarkable for their republi- 
can simplicity. At his home on the Penobscot, he cultivates 
his small farm with his own hands, laboring on it every summer, 
with all the regularity and vigor of his youthful days. In^his 
moral character, Mr. Hamlin is wholly without reproach, a man 
of pure and Christian life, and in his domesiic relations, he is 
most devoted and affectionate. No man is more thoroughly 
faithful to his friends than he, and none more highly prizes a 
true friend. His native State honors him, and with reason, for 
he is one of her best products, a manly, noble man in all the 
relations of life. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE, 

LATE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



I 



5"! T would be hard to find a better illustration of the facility 

with which, under Republican institutions, a man of 

genius and integrity may rise from obscurity and 

humble life to the most exalted station, than is afforded 

in the history of Benjamin F. Wade. He has not, it is 

true, like his predecessor, " filled every office, from alderman of 

a small village to President of the United States," but he has 

risen from an humble though honorable and honest condition, to 

the highest positions in the g'ft of the people, and through all, 

has maintained himself with dignity, propriety, and honor, and 

with a reputation for unflinching adherence to the principles 

of right, justice, and freedom, which any man might covet. 

BenjAiMIN Franklust Wade was born in Feeding Hills 

Parish, West Springfield, Massachusetts, October 27th, 1800. He 

was the youngest of ten children. His father was a soldier, 

who fought in every revolutionary battle from Bunker Hill to 

Yorktown. His mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian 

clergyman, a woman of vigorous intellect and great force of 

character. She fed and clothed her brood while the father was 

in the army. The family was one of the poorest in New 

England. A portion of its scanty property was a library of 

twelve books. This eventually became Benjamin's possession. 

He read the volumes through and through, and over and over, 
24U 




Kkobavkd by /\.B Wat.tek Phxi,ad 



/ 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 24 1< 

after his mother had led him so far into an education as to 
teach him to read and write. When Ben was eighteen, he 
tearfully turned his back on the old plow and the older home- 
stead ; and, with seven dollars in his pocket and a bundle of cloth- 
ing on his back, started to walk from Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, to Illinois, to seek his fortune. He footed it to Ashtabula 
county, Ohio. There, the snow falling, he determined to wait 
for spring to finish his journey ; hired himself out to cut wood! 
in the forest for fifty cents per cord, and snatched hours from 
sleep at night to read the Bible by the light of the fire on the 
hearth of the log-cabin. Both the Old and the New Testa- 
ments are at his tongue's end. Spring came; but the journey 
to Illinois and fortune was delayed by a summer's work at 
chopping, logging, and grubbing, followed by a Yankee winter 
at school-teaching. The journey was suspended by a second 
year of such work, and was finally lost in an experience of 
driving a herd of cattle. Wade led the " lead" steer of a drove 
from Ohio to New York. Six times he made this trip. The 
last ox he led took him to Albany.* 'Twas winter. Of course, 

* General Brisbin relates that on one of these occasions Mr. Wade came 
near losing his life. He was leading a steer as usual in front of the drove, 
when he came to a long covered bridge. The gate-keeper, according to 
the rules, would only allow a few of the herd to pass over at a time, lest their 
weight should injure the bridge. Wade started with the advance guard, but 
the cattle in the rear becoming frightened, rushed into the bridge and stampe- 
ded. Young Wade made haste to run, but finding he could not reach the 
other end before the frantic cattle would be upon him and trample Kim to 
death, he ran to one of the posts, and springing up, caught' hold of the 
brace and drew himself up as high as possible. He could barely keep his 
legs out of the way of the horns of the cattle, but he held on while the 
bridge swayed to and fro, threatening every moment to break under the 
great weight that was upon it. At length the last of the frightened 
animuls i)assed by, and our dangling hero dropped from his perch, to the 
astonishment of the drover, who thought he had been crushed to death, 
and was riding through the bridge, expecting every moment to find hia 
crushed and mangled body." 



242 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the drover tten expanded into a scliool-teacTier. "When the frost 
was out of the ground, scholars and teacher went to manual ^abor. 
The Erie canal got the teacher. During the summer of 1826 
Wade shoveled and wheeled ; " The only American I know/' said 
Governor Seward, in a speech in the Senate, " who worked with 
a spade and wheelbarrow on that great improvement." An- 
other winter of school-teaching in Ohio, and the persuasions 
of Elisha Whittlesey, and the friendly offer of a tavern-keeper 
who had got to loving Wade, to trust him bed and board 
without limit, drew Ben, at the age of twenty-six, into a law 
office, to study for the bar. He was admitted in two years. 
He waited another year for his first suit. 

It was but a petty offence with which his first client was 
charged, but the young lawyer went into his defence with all his 
might, and secured his acquittal. His zeal and resolution secured 
him the friendship of the members of the bar, and after the 
trial was over, the good old presiding judge condescended to 
privately give him a word of encouragement. Mr. Wade 
says no one can ever know how much good the kind words 
of the judge did him, and how they put courage into his 
heart to fight the future battles of his life. Without the advan- 
tages of early education, Mr. Wade felt constantly ihe need 
of close application to his law books, and became a hard 
student. The lawyers soon began to notice his opinions, and 
the energy and confidence he threw into a case. He had a 
wonderful deal of sense, and could analyze a knotty question 
with surprising ability. Those lawyers who were far his 
superiors in learning and eloquence could never equal the 
rough backwoodsman in grasping the points in a case and 
presenting them to the jury. 

After six years of unremitting toil, Wade found himself em- 
ployed in almost every case of importance litigated in tha 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 248 

circuit where he practiced. He was now a man of note; his 
law business was constantly increasing, and money was coming 
in to fill his pocket. He felt, as a thousand other men have 
felt, that the struggle of his life was over ; that it was no longer 
■vjith him simply a fight for bread. The world had been met 
and conquered, and the master began to look about him, and 
consider other matters than mere questions of food and clothing. 
Like most men who have taken the rough world by the throat 
and conquered it, Mr. Wade felt how completely he was self- 
made, and how little he had to fear from the future. 

In 1835, he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county 
of Ashtabula. Ilis talent for special pleading was remarkable, 
and his indictments are considered models at the present time. 

In 1837, Mr. Wade was offered the nomination to the State 
Sjnate from his district, and reluctantly accepted. This, Mr. 
Wade contends to this day, was the great mistake of his life. 
Tie has been continually successful in politics, and reached the 
tecond office in the nation ; but he never fails to warn young 
men to stick to their professions, and let politics alone. The 
empty honors of public life, he contends, never repay the poli 
tician for the toils and troubles that besot him at every step ^ 
and a quiet home is infinitely to be preferred to the highest 
political honor. 

lie was just entering his thirty-eighth year when he too.k hia 
seat in the State Senate of Ohio, and at once began his political 
career with the same earnestness that had characterized hia 
course at the bar. As a new member, he expected no position ; 
but his fame as a lawyer had preceded him to the capitol, and 
he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee. 

Mr. Wade finst directed his efforts to the repeal of the laws 
of Ohio whereby the poor but honest man could be imprisoned 
for debt by his creditor. He rapidly rose to the leadership of 



244 MEX OF OUR DAY. 

the little squad of "Whigs in the State Senate, and although 
greatly in the minority, he handled his small force so efiectively 
as to keep the Democrats always on the defensive. 

The question of the annexation of Texas coming up, Mr. 
Wade made haste to take bold grounds against slavery. He 
said : 

" This State of Texas coming to the Union, as it must (if at 
all), with the institution of slavery interwoven with its "social 
habits, being brought into this Union for the sole object of ex- 
tending the accursed system of human bondage, it cannot have 
ray voice or vote ; for, so help me God, I will never assist in 
adding one rood of slave territory to this country." 

Soon after his efforts to prevent the extension of slavery, the 
black people of Ohio began an active movement for relief from 
the oppressive State laws, and appealed to Mr. Wade to help 
them. He took their petition and presented it in the Senate, 
asking that " all laws might be repealed making distinctiona 
among the people of Ohio on account of color." This raised a 
storm of indignation, and even some of Mr. Wade's personal 
and party friends warned him to desist 'n his efforts to place a 
negro on equal footing with a white man, but Wade sternly re- 
buked them, and insisted on his petitions being heard. At first 
the Senate refused to hear what the negroes had to say, but at 
length received their petition, and at once laid it on the table, 
Mr. Wade protesting, and saying, with great vehemence and 
earnestness to the majority : " Remember, gentlemen, you have, 
by your votes, in this free State of Ohio, so treated a part of her 
people, these black men and women." 

At the close of his senatorial term, Mr. Wade found his negro 
doctrines had made him unpopular with his constituents. When 
the convention met in his district, he was not only passed over 
and a new man nominated, but some of the delegates thought it 
would be a good thing to censure him for his course. Mr, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 245 

Wade had given great offence by his vehement opposition to 
State appropriations for internal improvements, and the Com- 
missioners appointed by the Legislature of Kentucky to visit 
Ohio and obtain, as Mr, Wade said, ** the passage of a law to 
degrade the people of Ohio." 

The bill they sought to have made a law, was one of pains 
and penalties, intended to repulse from Ohio the unhappy 
negro, whether bond or free — flying from the cruelty of a mas- 
ter — or, if manumitted, from the persecution of the superior 
class of laborers in a slave State, who abhor such rivals. Mr. 
Wade's noble nature revolted against the tyranny which would 
not allow human beings a refuge anywhere on a continent from 
which they had no outlet, and into which they had been 
dragged against their will ; and he opposed the measure with all 
his might. 

Mr. Wade, conscious that he had done right, when his sena- 
torial term was out, returned to his home and recommenced the 
practice of law, resolving never again to stand for any political 
office. In 1840, when General Harrison was nominated for 
President, Mr. Wade, yielding to the wishes of his friends and 
the excitement and enthusiasm of the hour, took the stump, 
and in this campaign, for the first time in his life, became a 
stump orator. Ills speeches were plain, matter-of-fact talks, 
which the people thoroughly understood, and he became popu- 
lar, lie passed over the Reserve, addressing thousands of peo- 
ple, and laboring day and night for General Harrison's election. 
As soon as the canvass was over, he returned to his law office, 
at Jeftl'rson, and began to work up his cases again, regretting 
that he had not ]>aid more attention to his clients, and less to 
politics. He had remained single till his forty-first year, but 
then met with the lady who subsequently became his wife, at 
the residence of a client. His marriage has been an eminentlj^ 



246 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

happy one, and bis two children, both sons, distinguished them- 
selves and did honor to the name they bear, during the late 
war. 

In 1841, the people of Ohio having come to thoroughly 
understand and detest the speculations of internal improvements, 
and the Kentucky black laws, Mr, Wade's views were adopted, 
and he became popular as a wise legislator. The people of his 
district tendered him a re-nomination to the State Senate, but 
he declined. When the convention met, however, he was placed 
in nomination and triumphantly elected, by a largely increased 
majority over his former election. 

No sooner had he taken his seat than he renewed his labors 
in behalf of equal rights, and the repeal of all laws making dis- 
tinctions on account of color. He brought forward the petition 
of George W. Tyler, and fifty-four other persons, praying for 
the repeal of the fugitive slave law, passed by Ohio, in 1838, to 
please Kentucky. Wade argued, in an able speech, that negroes 
were men, as much as white persons, and as such entitled to 
personal liberty, trial by jury, testimony in the courts, and com- 
mon school privileges. Kentucky was then opposed to all 
these things, and used her influence with Ohio, to prevent her 
from adopting a liberal and just policy toward her black 
population. That was in 1841, more than a generation ago, 
and although it cannot be said Kentucky has advanced much in 
the business of securing her black })eople equal rights, she has 
done much toward changing their complexion. Herein Ken- 
tucky and her people differed from Mr. Wade and the people of 
Ohio ; Kentucky desired to equalize her population by nature, 
Ohio by law. Of the two processes we think posterity will 
incline to the belief that the former was the best. 

In February, 1842, a "bill for the incorporation of Oberlin 
Collegiate Institute, an institution for the education of persona^ 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 247 

without regard to race or color," came up in the Senate of Ohio, 
Mr. Wade advocated the bill, but it was voted down. Thia 
bill afterward passed, and was the foundation of the excellent 
college at Oberlin, Ohio, an institution that has furnished more> 
than five liundred anti-slavery missionaries, teachers and preach- 
ers, and done more than any other college to unmask the de-. 
formities of the system of human bondage. 

While he was in the State Senate, the people of Ohio peti 
tioned their Legislature to protest against the infamous resolu- 
tion, passed by Congress in 1837, relating to slavery. This 
resolution was in these words : 

Resolved^ That all petitions, memorials, and papers touching 
the abolition of slavery, or buying, selling or transferring of 
slaves in any State, District or Territory of the United States, 
be laid on the table without being debated, read or referred^ 
and that no further action whatever shall be taken thereon. 

Mr. Wade was appointed a special committee, and the peti- 
tion of the people of Ohio, and the resolution complained of, 
referred to him with directions to make a report on them. It 
is said Wade read and examined, for three weeks, books and au 
thorities, before he began writing his report ; be that as it may, 
certain it is, his report was at the time, and is still, regarded 
as one of the ablest anti-slavery documents ever published 
in this country. Thirty years have elapsed since then, and yet 
in all that time few reasons have been advanced against slavery 
that cannot be found embodied in Mr. Wade's report. 

At the same session he defended, with great ability and elo- 
quence, the course of John Quincy Adams in upholding the 
right of petition in Congress. Mr. Adams bad been censured 
by the House for presenting the Haverhill resolutioiis, asking 
for the dissolution of the Union, and the Ohio Legishiture 
undertook to justify that censure, but Mr. Wade and his anti- 



248" MEN OF OCK PAY, 

slavery friends, resisted the course of tlie Democratic majority 
with great energy and ability, though not with success. 

At the close of his second senatorial term, Mr. Wade declined 
a renomination, and again determined to leave off, forever, 
political life. From 18-i2 to 18-i7 he held no public office, and 
devoted himself to the practice of his profession and the care of 
his family. 

In February, 1847, Mr. Wade was elected, by the Legislature, 
president judge of the third judicial district of the State of 
Ohio, nis popularity at this time was unbounded. It has 
been the fortune of but few men to enter upon the discharge of 
judicial duties, having in advance secured to such an extent 
the unqualified confidence of the bar and people. He entered 
immediately upon the discharge of his duties. His district em- 
braced the populous counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Maho- 
ning, Portage, and Summit. The business had accumulated 
yastly under his predecessor. The same territory has now three 
resident judges, with but slightly increased business. 

It is but truth to say, that in no country on earth has the 
same number of people had the same amount of important and 
satisfactory justice administered to them in the same length of 
time, as had the district under the administration of Judge 
Wade. The younger members of the profession, who were so 
fortunate as to practice in this circuit during, Judge Wade's 
term upon the bench, will remember with lasting gratitude his 
kindness and judicial courtesy. 

During the time he was upon the bench, Judge Wade in- 
creased (if possible) in the confidence and admiration of his 
political friends, and disarmed those who had differed with him, 
and had felt the withering power of his logic and eloquence on 
the stump and at the bar. His judicial career was brought to 
A sudden and unexpected close in March, 1851, while he was 



BEITJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 249 

holding a term of court at Akron, Summit county, by his elec- 
tion by the Legislature, then in session, to the United States 
Senate. 

When thi news of his election reached him, Judge Wade 
was on the bench trying a case. The firing of cannon, and 
shouting of men. announced that some unusual event had taken 
place and presently a boy came running into the court with a 
dispatch informing Mr, Wade he had been elected a United 
States Senator from Ohio. 

The intelligence surprised no one so much as the judge, who 
had no knowledge that his name had been mentioned in con- 
i^ction with it, and had made no efforts to secure a nomination. 
The members of the bar in his judicial district were full of 
regret at his loss to the bench, but were pleased that his talents 
were at last appreciated. Resolutions of mingled regret and 
congratulation were passed, almost unanimously, in the various 
counties comprising his circuit. 

Mr. Wade was again persuaded to reluctantly give up his 
law business, and go into politics. He did so, however, with 
less regret this time than before, because the people of Ohio 
had come up to his anti-slavery views. He felt that in repre- 
aenting the majority of the people of his State, he need make 
no sacrifice of his own opinions, and he was most anxious to 
attack slavery at the capital, and, if possible, arouse the people 
of the country to the enormities of the institution, as he had 
aroused the people of Ohio. 

After his election to the United States Senate, in 1S51, Mr. 
Wade resigned his seat on the bench, and retired to his home 
at Jefferson. 

In 1852, Mr. Wade advocated the nomination and election of 
General Scott to the presidency. lie still insisted, and ardently 
hoped, that the Whig party, with which he had always acted 



250 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and in wbicli he saw so much to approve and admire, would 
jei be instrumental in bringing back the Government to the 
parpose of its founders. Stimulated by this consideration, he 
again took the stump, in and out of Ohio, and made the hustings 
ling with the clarion sound of his voice. Wherever he was 
heard, his reasoning was listened to with the most, profound 
attention ; and where he failed to convince, he obtained credit 
for honesty of purpose and powerful effort. 

Mr. Wade continued to act with the Whig party until 1854, 
when the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise began 
to agitate Congress. In March, 1854, he made a speech in the 
Senate, clearly defining his position, and fully demonstrating 
his determined hostility to a measure which, he predicted, would 
be fraught with more evil to the country, and danger to its 
peace, than had ever before disturbed its prosperity. After this 
speech he contented himself with watching the events which he 
saw must ultimately end in the consummation of all the evils he 
had predii^ted. He learned, by discussion of the measure, that 
it was to be carried by a combination of the southern Whigs, 
and those who for the occasion assumed the name of "National 
Democrats." At this union for such a purpose, his heart 
sickened, and he prepared himself to give utterance to the noble 
sentiments and awful warnings contained in his speech, delivered 
on the night of the final passage of that measure in the Senate. 
"] he Tribune of ihat date appropriately called that speech " the 
new Declaration of Independence." In this speech Mr. Wade 
takes a final farewell of his former Whig friends of the South, 
but not until he had seen solemnized the nuptials between them 
and the Democratic party. We cannot refrain from giving a 
few extracts from this speech. He said : — - 

" Mr. President : I do not intend to debate this subject further. 
The humiliation of the North is complete and overwhelming. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 251 

No southern enemy of hers can wish her deeper degradation. 
God knows I feel it keenly enough, and I have no desire to 
prolong the melancholy spectacle, -s^ * * I have all my life 
belonged to the great National Whig party, and never yet have 
I failed, with all the ability I have, to support her regular 
candidates, come from what portion of the Union they might, 
and much oftener has it been my lot to battle for a southern 
than for a northern candidate for the presidency ; and when 
such candidates were assailed by those who were jealous of 
slaveholders, and did not like to yield up the Government to 
such hands, how often have I encountered the violent prejudices 
of my own section with no little hazard to myself. How tri- 
umphantly would I appeal on such occasions to southern 
honor — to the magnanimity of soul which I believed always 
actuated southern gentlemen. Alas ! alas ! if God will pardon 
me for what I have done, I will promise to sin no more. * * * 
We certainly cannot have any further political connection with 
the Whigs of the South ; they have rendered such connection 
impossible. An impassable gulf separates us, and must here- 
after separate us. The southern wing of the old Whig party 
have joined their fortunes with what is called the National 
Democracy, and I wish you joy in your new connections. * * * 
To morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think 
it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the heavens, and 
the glory of the Eepublic should both go into obscurity and 
darkness together. Let the bill then pass ; it is a proper oc- 
casion for so dark and damning a deed." 

No extract can do any thing like justice to the mind that 
conceived, and the noble manliness that gave this speech utter- 
ance. From the time Mr. Wade made this speech, he haa 
known no Whig party, but devoted himself, soul and body, to the 
advocacy and defence of the measures of the Republican party. 

In the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Mr. Wade 
came fully before the country as a debater. The southern fire- 
eaters and northern doughfaces combined to break him djwn. 



252 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

but he hurled them back with surprising ability, and for the 
first time the southerners learned they had a northern master 
in the United States Senate, and were overmatched whenever 
they came in contact with the old Ohio Senator.* The New 

* It is to tliis portion of Mr. Wade's career that the story so graphically 
told by General Brisbin belono^s, and it illustrates so well hrs utter fear- 
lessness that we cannot refrain from quoting it, 

Soon after taking his seat, he witnessed one of those scenes so common 
in the Senate in those days. A southern fire-eater made an attack on a 
northern Senator, and Wade was amazed and disgusted at the cringing, 
cowardly way in which the northern man bore the taunts and insults of 
the hot-headed southerner. As no allusion was made to himself or State, 
Mr. Wade sat still, but when the Senate adjourned, he said openly, if ever 
a southern Senator made such an attack on him or his State, while he sat 
on that floor, he would brand him as a liar. This coming to the ears of the 
southern men, a Senator took occasion to pointedly speak a few days after- 
wards of Ohio and her people as negro thieves. Insiantly Mr. Wade 
sprang to his feet and pronounced the Senator a liar. The southern 
Senators were thunderstruck, and gathered around their champion, while 
the northern men grouped abott Wade. A feeler was put out from the 
Bouthern side, looking to retraction, but Mr. Wade retorted in his 
peculiar style, and demanded an apology for the insult offered himself 
and the people he represented. The matter thus closed, and a fight was 
looked upon as certain. The next day a gentleman called on the Sena- 
tor from Ohio, and asked the usual question touching his acknowledgment 
of the code. 

" I am here," he responded. " in a double capacity. I represent the State 
of Ohio, and I represent Ben. Wade. As a Senator I am opposed to duelling. 
As Ben. Wade, I recognize the code." 

'•My friend feels aggrieved," said the gentleman, "at what you said in 
the Senate yesterday, and will ask for an apology or satisfaction." 

"I was somewhat embarrassed," continued Senator Wade, "by my posi- 
tion yesterday, as I have some respect for the Chamber. I now take this 
opportunity to say what I then thought, and you will, if you please, repeat 
it. Your friend is a foul-mouthed old blackguard." 

" Certainly, Senator Wade, you do not wish me to convey such a message 
as that ?" 

•'Most undoubtedly I do; and will tell you for your own benefit, this 
friend of yours will never notice it. I will not be asked for either retrac- 
lion, explanation, or a fight." 

Ne.\t morning Mr. Wade came into the Senate, and proceeding to his 
Beat, deliberately drew from under his coat two large pistols, and unlocking 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 253 

York Tribune, speaking of liis first great speech on tke Kansas 
Nebraska bill says : — 

" There are many fine orations and good arguments ielivered 
in the United States Senate from time to time, but not often a 
reall}'- good speech. In order to have a good speech, there must 
be a man behind it. Such a speech we have in the powerful 
effort of Judge Wade, and in this case the speech is but the just 
measure of the man." 

Numberless are the incidents told of Mr. Wade's sharp and 
telling hits made during this protracted and famous debate. 
We subjoin a few, for most of which we are indebted to General 
Brisbin. 

his desk laid them inside. The soutliern men looked on in silence, wliile 
the northern members enjoyed to the fullest extent the fire-eaters' surprise 
at the proceedings of the plucky Ohio Senator. No further notice was 
taken of the affair of the day before. Wade was not challenged, but ever 
afterwards treated with the utmost politeness and consideration by the 
Senator who had so insultingly attacked him. 

But, while Mr. Wade was not to be intimidated by the bullying of southern 
fire-eaters, no man living surpassed him in his intense contempt for northern 
doughfaces. Another incident, not narrated by Gen. Brisbin, but which 
occurred in the session of 1852-3 illustrates this very forcibly. Hon. Charles 
(t. Atherton of New Hampshire, better known as " Gag Atherton," from his 
introduction of the resolution to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table, 
was emphatically a " Northern man with Southern principles." One day, Mr. 
Wade, who was personally very popular, even with his political opponents, 
was conversing with Ex-Governor Morehead of Kentuckj^ who was then 
visiting Washington, when Atherton came up, and at once began an attack 
on Mr. Wade, in regard to the Fugitive Slave law. " Why, Mr. Wade," 
he said, "if a nigger had run away from a good master in Kentucky, and 
came to your house in Ohio, wouldn't you arrest him, and send him back 
to his master?" "No! indeed, I wouldn't;" replied Mr. Wade. "Would 
you, Atherton?" "Certainly, I would," replied Mr. Atherton, "I should 
deem it my duty, to enforce that as much as any other law." Mr. Wade 
turned to Morehead; "Well, Governor, what do you say? Would yon 
arrest a nigger and send him back under such circumstances ?" " No," 
replied (Governor Morehead, gruffly, " I'd see him d— d first." "Well," said 
Old Bon, after a moment's pause, " I don't know as I can blame you, seeing 
you have got such a lliiug as this" (pointing to Atherton) to do it for you." 



254 MEN OF OUB DAT. 

Mr. Pugh, Judge "Wade's colleague in the Senate, was an 
intense pro-slavery Democrat; he was a man of very fair ability, 
but nc match in wit or sarcasm for his radical colleague, yet he 
often sought a collision, and Mr. Wade never hesitated to reply 
to his challenge. One day, Pugh had put some taunting ques* 
tiDus to him respecting the common brotherhood of mankini* 
Wade replied : — 

" I have always believed, heretofore, in the doctrines of tho 
Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and 
equal ; but of late it appears that some men are born slaves, and 
I regret that they are not black, so all the world might know 
tbem." As he said this he pointed to Pugh, and stood looking 
at him for several moments, with a scowl and expression of 
countenance that was perfectly ferocious. 

Mr, Brown, of Mississippi, interrupted him just as he had 
said, "1 know very well, sir, with what a yell of triumph the 
passage of this bill will be hailed both in the South and in 
pandemonium." 

Mr. Brown. — "Do you know what is going on there?" 
[Laughter.] 

Mr. Wade. — " I do not pretend to know precisely what is on 
foot there; but I think it pretty evident that there is a very 
free communication between that country and this body, and 
unless I am greatly mistaken, I see the dwarfish medium by 
which that communication is kept up." [Great laughter, and a 
voice on the southern side, " I guess he's got you, Brown."] 

During the argument on the Nebraska bill, Mr. Badger, theu 
a Senator from North Carolina, drew a glowing picture of 
slavery. He had, he said, been nursed by a black woman, and 
bad grown from childhood to manhood iinder her care He 
loved his old black mammy ; and now, if he was going to 
Nebraska, and the opponents of the bill succeeded in prohibit- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 255 

ing slavery there, he could not take his old mammy -with him 
Turning to Mr. Wade, he said : — *' Surely you will not prevent 
me from taking my old mammy with me?" 

" Certainly not," replied Mr. "Wade ; " but that is not the 
difficulty in the mind of the Senator. It is because, if we make 
the territory free, he cannot sell his old mammy when he has 
got her there." 

Mr. Wade was arguing to show that slaves were not property 
in the constitutional meaning of the term. He said : " If a man 
carries his horse out of a slave State into a free one, he does 
not lose his property interest in him ; but if he carries his 
slave into a free State, the law makes him free." 

Mr. Butler, interrupting him, said : " Yes, but they won't 
Btay with you ; they love us so well they will run off, and come 
back, in spite of you and your boasted freedom." 

Mr. Wade smilingly replied, amid roars of laughter : " Oh, 
yes. Senator, I know they love you so well, you have to make a 
Fugitive Slave law to catch them." 

The southern men, having tried in vain to head off Mr. 
Wade, appealed to their northern allies to help them. One 
day Mr. Douglas rose in his seat, and interrupted Mr. Wade, 
who was speaking. Instantly the chamber became silent as 
death, and all eyes were turned in the direction of the two 
standing Senators. Every one expected to see Wade demolished 
in a moment, by the great Illinois Senator. 

*' You, sir," said Mr. Douglas, in measured tones, " continually 
compliment southern men who support this bill (Nebraska), 
but bitterly denounce northern men who support it. Why ia 
this ? You say it is a moral wrong ; you say it is a crime. If 
ihat be so, is it not as much a crime for a southern man to 
support it, as for a northern man to do so ?" 

Mr. Wade. — " No, sir, I say not." 



/ 



256 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Mr. Douglas. — " The Senator says not. Then lie entertains a 
different code of morals from myself, and — " 

Mr Wade interrupting Douglas, and pointing to him, with 
scorn marked on every lineament of his face, ^" Your code of 
morals I Your morals!! My God, I hope so, sir." 

The giant was hit in the forehead, and after standing for a 
moment with his face red as scarlet, dropped silently into hij< 
seat, while Mr. Wade proceeded with his speech as quietly as 
though nothing had occurred. 

Mr. Douglas was angry, however, and closely watched Wade 
for a chance to pounce upon and scalp him. It soon occurred, 
and in this way : Mr. Wade had said something complimentary 
about Colonel Lane, of Kansas, when Mr. Douglas rose and 
said: " Colonel Lane cannot be believed — he has been guilty of 
perjury and forgery." 

Mr. Wade. — " And what proof, sir, have you of these allega- 
tions ? Your unsupported word is not sufficient," 

Mr. Douglas. — " I have the afSdavit of Colonel Lane, in 
which, some time since, he swore one thing, and now states 
another." 

Mr. Wade. — " And you, sir, a lawyer, presume to charge this 
man with being guilty of forgery and perjury, and then offer 
him as a witness to prove your own word." 

Douglas saw in a moment he was hopelessly caught, and 
attempted to retreat, but Wade pounced upon him and gave 
him a withering rebuke, while the chamber shook Avith roars of 
laughter. Such scenes have to be witnessed to fully understand 
them, as there is as much in the exhibition as in the words. 

Mr. Douglas continued to badger Wade, sometimes getting 
the better of him, but often getting roughly handled, until 
Wade, worn out with defending himself, determined to become 
the attacking party. Soon afterward, the " Little Giant " was 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 257 

bewailing tlie fate of the nation, and picturing the sad condition 
it would be in if the Free Soilers succeeded. Having worked 
himself up into a passion, Avhen he was at the highest pitch, Mr. 
Wade rose in his seat and said, with indescribable coolness, 
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Douglas, for a 
moment, was surprised and dumbfounded, and then attempted to 
proceed ; but the pith was knocked out of his argument, and the 
Senators only smiled at his earnestness, and he, at last, sat down 
in disgust. 

Mr. Douglas afterward said, '' That interrogatory of AVade's 
was the most effective speech I ever heard in the Senate. Con- 
found the man ; it was so ridiculous, and put so comically, I 
knew not what answer to make him, and became ridiculous 
myself in not being able to tell ' what I was going to do 
about it.' " 

While the Lecompton bill was under discussion, Mr. Toombs, 
of Georgia, referring to the minority, of which Mr. Wade was 
one, said: "The majority have rights and duties, and I trust, 
there is fidelity enough to themselves and their principles, and 
to their country, in the majority, to stand together at all haz- 
ards, and crush this factious minority." 

Instantly, Mr. Wade sprang to his feet, and shaking his fist 
at Toombs, roared out : " Have a care, sir ; have a care. You 
can't crush me nor my people. You can never conquer us , we 
will die first. I may fall here in the Senate chamber, but I will 
never make any compromise with any such men. You may 
bring a majority and out-vote me, but, so help me God, I will 
neither compromise or be crushed. That's what I have to say 
to your threat." 

A southern Senator one day said, roughly, to Wade, " If you 

don't stop your abolition doctrines, we will break up the Union. 

We will secede, sir 1" Wade held out his hand, and said, com- 
17 



/ 



258 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ically, " Good-by, Senator, if you are going now ; T pray yoa 
don't delay a moment on my account." 

Senator Evans, of South Carolina, a very grave and good old 
man, one day was exhibiting in the Senate chamber and speak- 
ing of a copy of Garrison's Liberator, with its horrible pictures 
of slavery. Turning to Mr. Wade, who sat near him, he said : 
" Is it not too bad that such a paper should be allowed to exist ? 
Why will not the authorities of the United States suppress such 
a slanderous sheet ? Can it be possible that any patriotic citizen 
of the North will tolerate such an abomination?" Senator 
Wade put on his spectacles, and looking at the title of the paper, 
exclaimed in surprise, " Why, Senator Evans, in Ohio, we con- 
sider this one of our best family papers !" The Senators roared ; 
but Mr. Evans, who had a great respect for Mr. Wade, turned 
sadly away, saying, "I am sorry to hear you say so, Mr. Wade; 
it shows whither we are drifting." 

Notwithstanding Mr. Wade's bitter opposition to the slave 
power, the southern men always respected and liked him. Mr. 
Toombs, the Georgia fire-eater, said of him, in the Senate : " My 
friend from Ohio puts the matter squarely. He is always honest, 
outspoken and straightforward, and I wish to God the rest of 
you would imitate him. He speaks out like a man. He says 
what is the difference, and it is. He means what he says ; you 
don't always. He and I can agree about every thing on earth 
except our sable population." 

There was not a northern demasfOf^ue in Congress who would 
not have given gladly all his ill-gotten reputation to have had 
such a compliment paid him by a southern Senator as was paid 
by Mr. Toombs to Senator Wade. 

In the debates on the organization of Kansas as a State, Mr. 
Wade avowed himself a Eepublican — a Black Republican, if 
they chose to call him so — and as determined in his opposition 



BE>rjAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 259 

to slavery extension, under all circumstances and at all times. 
In the course of one of the speeches he made on that question, 
he made use of the following language : 

" Sir, I am no sycophant or worshipper of power anywhere. 1 
know how easy it is for some minds to glide along with the cur- 
rent of popular opinion, where influence, respectability, and all 
those motives which tend to seduce the human heart are brought 
to bear. I am not unconscious of the persuasive power exerted 
by these considerations to drag men along in the current ; but I 
am not at liberty to travel that road. I am not unaware how 
unpopular on this floor are the sentiments I am about to advo- 
cate. I well understand the epithets to which they subject their 
supporters. Every man who has been in this hall for one hour 
knows the difference between him who comes here as the de- 
fender and supporter of the rights of human nature, and him 
who comes as the vile sycophant and flatterer of those in power, y 
I know that the one road is easy to travel ; the other is hard, i 
and at this time perilous. But, sir, I shall take the path of duty 1 
and shall not swerve from it. 

"I am amazed at the facility with which some men follow in 
the wake of slavery. Sometimes it leads me even to hesitate 
whether I am strictly correct in my idea that all men are born 
to equal rights, for their conduct seems to me to contravene the 
doctrine. I see in some men an abjectness, a want of that manly 
independence which enables a man to rely on himself and face 
the world on his own principles, that I don't know but that I am 
wrong in advocating universal liberty. I wish to heaven all 
such were of the African race." 

The brutal and cowardly attack on Hon. Charles Sumner by 
Preston S. Brooks, in May, 1856, called out all the grand and 
heroic elements of Mr. Wade's nature. Others might htsitate 
and fear to enter upon the discussion of the question of slavery, 
when its advocates resorted to the bludgeon and pistol as their 
reply to the arguments of the anti-slavery men ; but it was not 
m Ben "Wade to falter. On the next day after the outrage he 



MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

rose and commenced bis speech in denunciation of the atrocious 
deed, with these memorable words : 

" Mr. President, if the hour has arrived in the history of this 
Republic when its Senators are to be sacrificed and pay the for- 
feit of their lives for opinions' sake, I know of no fitter place to 
die than in this chamber, with our Senate robes around us ; and 
here, if necessary, I shall die at my post, and in my place, for the 
liberty of debate and free discussion." 

The southern men writhed, as if in pain, as his scathing words 
fell hot and heavy upon them, portraying the cowardice, the 
meanness, the infamy of the deed, and it required a brow of 
brass to stand up in defence of it, after this severe yet dignified 
denunciation of the assault. 

During the war, Senator Wade was one of the ablest and 
most untiring members of the Senate. He was chairman of the 
Committee on Territories, and also of the special Committee on 
the Conduct of the War, a committee whose services were of the 
greatest value to the national cause. 

Ohio wisely kept him in the Senate for three successive 
terms, the last of which ended March 4th, 1869. In the begin- 
ning of March, 1867, the term of office of Hon. Lafayette S. 
Foster, President pro tern, of the Senate, and acting Yice-Presi- 
dent of the United States, having expired, Mr. Wade was elected 
by the Senate as their presiding officer, a position for which his 
large experience, thorough political and parliamentary know- 
ledge, and fearless independence, eminently fitted him. During 
the impeachment trial, he, according to the Constitution, resigned 
the cl^air to the Chief Justice of the United States, whose duty 
it was to preside in such a trial, and it was the understanding 
that in case of the President's conviction, Mr. Wade would suc- 
ceed to the presidential chair. 

On the 4th of March, 1869, Mr. Wade surrendered his place 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 261 

as President of the Senate to his successor, Hon, Schuyler Col- 
fax, his kinsman by marriage, and retired with satisfaction to 
his home in northern Ohio. From that peaceful and quiet home 
he was called in January, 1871, to be the chairman of a Commis- 
sion to visit Santo Domingo and ascertain the desires of the people 
in regard to annexation to the United States, and the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of such annexation. The Commission 
examined the island, very thoroughly, and repoi'ted in favor of 
annexation, but the feeling against it in Congress was so strong 
that it was given up. Since his return fi-om Santo Domingo 
Mr. Wade has not taken any part in public affairs. 

In person, Mr. Wade is about five feet eight inches in height. 
Rtout, and of dark but clear complexion. His eyes are sraall^ 
jet black and deeply cut, and when roused, they shine like coals 
of fire. He is slightly stooped, but walks without a cane, and 
is sprightly and active. His jaws are firm and large, the under 
one being very strong and compact. The lips are full and round, 
the upper one doubling, at the corners of his mouth, over the 
lower one, which gives the Senator a ferocious and savage sort 
of look ; and this it is that causes so many persons to misunder- 
stand the true character of the man, and mistake him for a fierce, 
hard, cold man, when he is, in reality, one of the w^armest, 
kindest-hearted men in the world. His face is not a handsome 
one, and if you examine it in detail, you will sa}'' he is an ugly 
man ; and yet there is in that face a sort of rough harmony, an 
honest, bluff, heartiness that makes you like it. There is nothing 
weak, bad, or treacherous-looking about it ; and when he speaks 
the features light up, and the mobilized countenance gives to 
the straightforward words such an interest that you no longer 
remember his homeliness at all. When sitting silent or listen- 
ing, he has a way of looking at one with his piercing black eyes 
that at once disconcerts a rascal or dishonest man, and is often 



262 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

most annoying to the innocent and honest. You feel he is read- 
ing you and weighing closely your motives for what you are 
saying. There is no use in trying to deceive or lie to old Ben. 
Wade ; if he don't find you out and hint at your motives before 
you leave, rest assured he understands you, and only keeps his 
belief to himself, because he does not desire to wound your 
feelings. 

We do not think Mr. Wade ever owned such a thing as a 
finger-ring or breast-pin. He dresses in plain black, and wears 
a standing- collar of the old style, and is always scrupulously 
clean. Always talkative and lively when out of his seat, he is 
silent, grave and thoughtful when in the Senate chamber. Any 
one who looked at him from the galleries, as he sat daily in the 
Yice-President's chair, presiding over the deliberations of the 
highest tribunal in the land, could see in his quiet repose a pic- 
ture of real strength and dignity such as should characterize the 
American Senator. 

As chairman of the Committee on Territories, he reported 
the first provision prohibiting slavery in all the territory of the 
United States to be subsequently acquired ; the bill for negro 
sufii'age in the District of Columbia; carried the homestead bill 
through the Senate ; led the Senate in the division of Virginia 
and the formation of the new State of West Virginia ; and 
secured the admission of Nevada and Colorado into the Union. 

On one point only did he differ from Mr. Lincoln, viz. : his 
proposed reconstructiou policy ; and the difference was for a 
time strong and decided; but, in the end. Mi. Lincoln acknow- 
ledged that that was the great error of his life, and receded from 
the measures he had proposed. 



HAMILTON FISH 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 



^jrt AMILTON FISH, the present Secretary of State, is a 
^- j I sou of Colonel Nicholas Fish, and a native of the city 
^^^ of New York, where he was born in 1809. He is 
e) descended from one of what are called " the old families " 
of that city, not less on account of their lineage, than from their 
standing, wealth, and respectability. He was educated at Col- 
umbia College, from which he graduated in 1827, with an ex- 
cellent reputation for ability and attainments. He embraced the 
profession of law ; was admitted an attorney in the Superior 
Court in 1830, and, three years later was regularly enrolled 
among the counsellors of that court. As a lawyer, his business 
was large, and always attended to with a promptness, ability 
and diligence which would naturaljy have insured its increase^ 
had not the management of his large estate occupied more of 
his time than was consistent with the attainment of the highest 
honors or the lucrative emoluments of the profession. Early in 
life he manifested a deep interest in politics, and it could scarcely 
have been otherwise with a young man of his social positioq 
and intelligence, when we consider the period of remarkable 
political activity in which he grew up to man's estate. Although 
then as now, rather conservative, he was generally associated 

with those of advanced opinions. In 1831: he was an unsucr 

263 



264 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

cessful candidate for the State Assembly ; but, was more suc- 
cessful in 1837, and his course in that body afforded entire satis- 
faction to his party friends ; for, while not particularly distin- 
guished in debate, his consistency as a politician, business tact, 
and ability, gained him a prominent place on the Whig side of 
the House, and the favorable regard of those with whom he was 
particularly affiliated. 

In 1842 he was elected to represent the Sixth Congressional 
District (embracing the six upper wards, except the 13th and 
14th) over John McKeon (Democrat), by a small majority ; 
whicn, however, was considered a great triumph, inasmuch as 
Governor Bouck's (Democrat) majority over Seward (Whig) was 
about 1200 in the same district. Mr. Fish's success, however, 
was owing not so much to his personal popularity, as to his 
well-known approval of the principles and objects of the Native 
American party, who threw their influence in his favor. He 
served but one term, was Chairman of the Military Committee, 
and attained a creditable standing among the prominent Whigs 
of that day, which paved the way for future political prefer- 
ment ; so that, when he retired again to private life, his friends 
were unwilling to surrender their claims upon him, and he was 
nominated as the Whig candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of 
the State, at the State Convention of 1846, on the same ticket 
with John Young, which, however, was defeated by the " anti- 
renters " adoption of the Democratic candidate. The next year, 
1847, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor in the place of Mr. 
Gardiner, who resigned (the opposition failing in consequence 
of division in the Democratic ranks), and presided over the 
deliberations of the Senate with dignity and acceptability. 
In 1848, Governor Young declined renomination, and Mr. Fish, 
' as Lieutenant Governor, naturally attracted the attention of his 
party to himself. In spite of the then existing division of the 



HAMILTON FISH. 265 

Whig party into "Conservatives" (afterwards National Whigs), 
with whom Mr. Fish sympathized, and "Eadicals" (or Seward 
Whigs), he received the nomination for Governor, at the State 
Convention, on September 14th, with Geo. W. Patterson as 
Lieutenant-Governor. The Whigs, owing to divisions in the 
Democratic camp, succeeded, by a plurality vote, and Mr. Fish 
took the oath of office January 1st, 1849. The position being 
pretty well stripped of patronage by the Constitution of 1846, 
the new Governor found no difficulty in preserving that mode- 
rate, neutral course of conduct, which became the position, and 
which was so acceptable to his own tastes, and his administra- 
tion passed harmoniously, although slavery was bitterly agitat- 
ing the councils of the State, as well as of the nation. Mr. Fish 
was early committed to the Wilmot proviso, and in his annual 
message, took strong grounds against the extension of slave ter- 
ritory. His messages, like all public papers from his hand, are 
conspicuous for their style and the modesty with which his 
opinions are stated. Among his recommendations were the 
institution of a State Agricultural School ; of a School for In- 
struction in the Mechanical Arts; the restoration of the office of 
County Superintendent of Schools; the revision and alteration 
of the laws authorizing taxes and assessments for local improve- 
ments ; a more general and equable tax on personal property ; 
the establishment of tribunals of conciliation, in accordance 
with provisions of the Constitution of 1846; and a modification 
of the criminal code. 

After his retirement from the gubernatorial chair, he was sent 
to the United States Senate (in place of Daniel S. Dickinson), 
where he served from 1852 to 1857. During this time, includ- 
ing as it did the epoch of the Repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, he became identified with the present Republican party. 
After leaving Congress, he spent several years in the enjoyment 



2G6 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

of travel in Europe. At the outbreak of the War of Secession 
lie was boldly outspoken for the Union, and participated in the 
overwhelming demonstration at Union Square, New York, May 
20tli, 1861, where he made a short but stirring appeal 

lu January 1862, he was appointed, together with Bishop 
Ames of the Methodist Episcopal Church, upon a Commission 
to relieve the Union prisoners in the Southern prisons, and 
although they were denied admission to the territory held by 
Southern arms, they nevertheless succeeded in negotiating a 
general exchange of prisoners of war. Later in the same year 
Mr. Fish wrote a letter, in which he said : " We must conquer 
peace ; we cannot buy it, and if we could, it would be valueless, 
as it would be disgraceful." 

At the close of the war Mr. Fish again went to Europe, but 
soon after his return was nominated Secretary of State by Presi- 
dent Grant, March 1st, 1869, in place of E. B. Washburne, 
resigned. In the administration of the duties devolving upon 
this office, which has come to be considered of laie years the 
Premiership of the Cabinet, Mr. Fish's course has not always 
met the public approval. Like most men of reticent and con- 
servative temper, he possesses a very strong will, and some 
notions which make him a difficult man to deal with. In his 
relations with our ministers to foreign courts, and the ministers 
of other powers to the United States, he has either been unfortu- 
nate or perverse. Mr. Motley, a gentleman and scholar of as 
high social position as Mr. Fish, a historian of whom the nation 
had a right to be proud, and a diplomatist of very considerable 
experience, was appointed Minister to the Court of St. James 
at the commencement of President Grant's administration; but 
within a year fell under Secretary Fish's displeasure, and after 
a correspondence, which was not specially creditable to either 
party, was dismissed. The unseemly quarrel with Mr. Catacazy, 
the Russian Minister, was not probably Mr. Fish's fault, for the 



HAMILTON FISH. 267 

Bussian was not lit for his place ; but the disgraceful wrangling 
over it, and the discourtesy to the son of the European monarch 
most friendly to us, was not an edifying spectacle. 

In his diplomatic intercourse with other powers, notably with 
Spain, Denmark, and France, Mr. Fish has at times been rash 
and fretful. While not lacking the ability to handle a constitu- 
tional law point as adroitly as any of his predecessors, he has 
fallen below the generality of them in courteous style of state- 
ment. Yankee brusqueness may accord perfectly with oui 
home dispositions,' and may even be excused in private character 
abroad, but diplomatists have grown so used to suave methods 
of speech that a departure for any reason is well nigh inex- 
cusable. 

Secretary Fish has come in for a large share of censure in 
his method of conducting the Alabama claims controversy. But 
as most of that censure was predicated on the supposed entire 
failure of the treaty, it has been in a great measure withdrawn 
since the prospect of the treaty's ratification, in a modified form, 
has brightened. 

We shall not discuss the preliminaries of the treaty, but sim- 
ply state that the nation expected much from it, not only as a 
comipensation for actual losses, and as a sedative to that rancor- 
ous feeling which was distracting two nearly allied countries, 
but as a harbinger of the era of amicable arbitration wherever 
national differences existed. 

In order to reach the desired end both nations had to concede 
something. Mr. Fish's position was strongly taken. It accorded 
with the views of our greatest diplomatists, not even excepting 
those of his bitterest personal enemy, Mr. Sumner. When Eng- 
land recoiled from it, and took the position that she could not 
honorably admit our claim for indefinite consequential damages, 
perhups Mr. Fish continued to be a little too stiff" and exacting. 
At any rate it was not until a powerful sentiment grew up in 



268 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the country against the advisability of adhering to such conse- 
quential claims that he showed signs of yielding. When he 
did yield it was evidently against his better judgment, and with 
a reluctance that proved a strong attachment to his original 
position. His conduct thus far only shows that native convic- 
tion was with difficulty overborne by considerations of policy, , 
or that concessory spirit which so largely enters into successful 
diplomacy. 

His enemies were, however, not slow to seize this opportu- 
nity for first driving home upon him the charge of obstinacy, 
and afterwards when he yielded, the charge of cowardice, which 
charge, on the other side of the water, took the shape of disin- 
genuousness and trickery ; for though he pressed at first the 
claims for indirect damages with all his ardor, he privately de- 
clared that it was not done with the expectation of recovering 
upon thein. The fact is, he simply took a lawyer-like view of 
them, and regarded their presentation as necessary to show that 
some modification of the laws regulating the conduct of neutrals 
was needed. We cannot think that either cowardice or a desire 
to act unfairly is an ingredient of Mr. Fish's nature. We must 
credit him with a strong will and great professional pride, amount- 
ing at times, perhaps, to forgetfulness of those little refinements 
which unavoidably attach themselves to diplomacy, and to 
abhorrence of those compromises which in every day life are 
oftener evidences of weakness than strength. Instinctively he 
is a safe and true counsellor. His slowness may give rise to the 
impression that he is timid, but surely this is rebutted by that 
firmness, when his mind is once made up, which has so often 
thrown him open to the charge of wilfulness and stubbornness. 
The/oj-^e of the diplomatist is tact. That he lacks the shrewd- 
ness and smoothness of diction, which have immortalized shal- 
lower men, must not go to discredit the integrity of his character 
the depth of his learning, or the soundness of his judgments. 



GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 




,03 

bEORGE S. BOUTWELL was born in Brookline. 



Massachusetts, January 28tli, 1818. In April, 1820, 
•^V£ bis parents removed to Lunenburg, where they lived 
to on a farm until 1863, when both died, his mother in 
March, and his father in July. His mother was of the Marshall 
family. Mr. Boutwell's father was a man of good abilities, 
and was twice a member of the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1853. Mr. Boutwell learned to read at a very early age, stand- 
ing at his mother's knee, while she read the large family Bible. 
The result was that he learned to read as the type setters read, 
" by the word method." 

As he grew up he could not remember the time when he 
could not read. He went to the public school six or seven very 
brief summer terms, and to perhaps as many private schools, of 
a few weeks each, and usually kept by the same teacher. He 
attended winter schools until, and including, his sixteenth birth- 
day. The next winter he taught a school in Shirley, Massa- 
chusetts. 

At that time he had thoroughly mastered Arithmetic, and 
learned something of Latin, Algebra, Geometry, Astronomy, 
Natural Philosophy and History. He studied these branches, 
in scbool and out, under most unfavorable circumstances. 



270 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

When nearly tliirteen years old he went into a country store 
at Lunenburg and remained there four years. In March, 1835, 
he went to Groton, entering upon the mercantile business and 
continuing there as clerk or partner for several years. The 
early facility in reading, gained at his mother's knee, created a 
taste for study, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. 

In the second story of the store where he served as clerk, 
there was kept an old, but choice and well selected library. 
This was a mine of wealth to young Boutwell. In the absence 
of customers, and so far as fidelity to his employer permitted, 
he read during the day. But at nine o'clock, when the store 
closed, he repaired promptly to the library and there read till 
overcome by drowsiness, when he roused himself by some 
physical exercise, and continued his reading. When sleep 
again asserted its claims, he plunged his head in a pail of water, 
at hand for that purpose, and under that renewed stimulus 
read on till an unduly late hour of the night. The fact that 
at this early age, with such meagre school advantages, and 
while so closely occupied with farm work and clerk service, 
he had made so large attainments in the studies named, and 
that he was able to teach school at sixteen, shows his enthu- 
siasm in the work of self-culture, his unusual quickness in 
learning, and invincible energy in pursuing his studies, in the 
face of manifold difB.culties. 

When only eighteen years of age he commenced, systematical- 
ly, the study of law, and entered his name in an attorney's office, 
studying at odd times, chiefly nights. At the same time he 
renewed the study of Latin, under Dr. A. B. Bancroft, and read 
Yirgil, and other Latin authors. While an active member of 
the Legislature, in the winter of 18i2-43, he resumed the study 
of French under Count Laporte, which he had previously 
pursued without a teacher, devoting for several months one 



GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 271 

half hour a day to this study. For six years his thirst for 
knowledge almost consumed him. He devoted every moment 
he could command to study, working till midnight, and often 
till one, two, or even three o'clock in the morning. This zeal 
was self-prompted, and without the stimulus of a teacher or 
any rival companions. This excessive labor injured his health, 
and in 1841-42, he was obliged to diminish his hours of study. 
At nineteen he delivered his first public lecture before the 
Groton Lyceum. In 1840, he entered the political contest in 
favor of Mr. Van Buren. At the age of twenty-one, he was 
elected a member of the school committee in Groton, a large 
town of more than usual wealth and culture. The esteem in 
which he was held by his fellow-townsmen is also shown by 
the fact that in the same year he was the candidate of the 
Democratic party for the Legislature and though defeated the 
first two years, continued to be their candidate for ten years. 
He was a member of the legislature in 1842, '43, '44, '47, '48, '49, 
and '50. He soon became a prominent and influential member, 
and surpassed all by his thorough mastery of the subjects 
which he discuss,ed and by his readiness and ability in debate. 
He successfully advocated the questions of retrenchment of 
expenses, enlargement of the school fund, and Harvard college 
reform. 

The legislation on these subjects, and especially in reference 
to Harvard college, was mainly due to his efforts. Between 
1842 and 1850, he was Railway Commissioner, Bank Commis- 
sioner, Commissioner on Boston Harbor, and a member of 
special State Committees upon the subject of Insanity, and upon 
the Public Lands in Maine. In all those years he gave numer- 
ous Lyceum lectures, and political addresses. In 1844, '46, and 
'48, he was the candidate of the Democratic party for Congress. 

He was nominated for the ofi&ce of governor, in 1849-50, and 



272 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

was elected to that office in 1851, and 1852. In the State 
Leoislature and Constitutional Convention of 1853, he was 
early recognized as a leader. He was familiar with parliamen- 
tary rules, was always in order, never prolix, speaking merely 
to be heard or without something to say, but always aimed 
directly at the point, and of course at all times had the ear of 
the Convention. He united firmness with conciliation and 
exhibited fairness, tolerance, and courtesy to opponents. 

In the Constitutional Convention, Rufus Choate was his lead- 
ing opponent. Early in the session, Mr. Choate, by a most elo- 
quent speech, had won the admiration of the Convention. The 
subject was " Town Representation." Mr. Boutvvell rose to 
reply. His apparent temerity in meeting the most brilliant 
member on the Whig side, quite surprised those who did not 
know him. But the apprehension of a damaging comparison, 
or a failure, at once passed away. He enchained the attention 
of the Convention, and maintained his cause with signal 
ability. He prepared and reported the Constitution which was 
submitted to the people and adopted. The same year he 
became a member of the " State Board of Education." It was 
a deserved tribute to his clear judgment and substantial educa- 
tion, that Massachusetts, ever proud of her public schools, 
should call one without collegiate culture to succeed the classi- 
cal Barnas Sears, and the eloquent and enthusiastic Horace 
Mann. He was connected with this board ten years, and, as its 
secretary for five years, acquitted himself with marked ability. 
His five annual reports, his commentary on the school laws of 
Massachusetts, and his volume on " Educational Topics and 
Institutions,'' rank high in the educational literature of the 
country. From 1851 to 1860, he was a member of the Board 
of Overseers of Harvard college. In 1856, he was elected a 
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 
1801, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa of Cambrid>;e, and de- 



GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 273 

livered tbe commencement oration. Political subjects, according 
to usage and obvious propriety, are avoided on sucb occasions, 
but in this crisis of the nation, officers of college and of the 
society called upon the ex-governor to discuss freely the state 
of the country. His oration, after showing that slavery was the 
cause of the war, demonstrated the justice and necessity of 
emancipation. It was in advance of the times, and was severely 
censured, not only by Democrats but by many Republican 
leaders and papers. It was published entire in various jour- 
nals, and circulated widely through the country, and hastened 
the great revolution of public sentiment on this subject more 
than any address by any American statesman during the first 
year of the war. 

Immersed in public affairs since his majority, no other man 
of his age in Massachusetts has been so long and constantly 
in the public service. No other man living, in that State, has 
held so many, varied and responsible offices, in each of which 
his course has been marked by integrity, fidelity, and ability. 

To the young his life is a fit example of the cardinal virtues 
of industry, uprightness, and frugality, of strict temperance, and 
unwearied perseverance. 

Mr. Boutwell is not a politician, but a statesman. In all 

his history, his faith has been in truth, in right, in justice and 

principle, and not in art and scheming, in management and 

chicanery. Fidelity to principle has marked his whole career. 

He has ever been an earnest and consistent advocate of the 

rights of man. He left the Democratic party upon the repeal 

of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, his last vote with that 

party being in 1853. He was a leader in the organization of 

the Republican party in Massachusetts, and was a delegate to 

the Baltimore Convention, in 1864 ; was a member of the Peace 

Congress in 1861 ; organized the new Department of Internal 
lb 



274 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

Revenue, and served as Commissioner until 1862, when he 
resigned to take his seat in the Thirty-eighth Congress. He 
served on the Judiciary Committee, in the Thirty-ninth and 
Fortieth Congress, and was one of the managers in the Impeach- 
ment case. 

He was re-elected to the Forty-first Congress, and took his seat 
at the First Session, commencing March 4th, 1869, but on the 
11th of March he was nominated by President Grant for Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, and has held that important and responsi- 
ble office till the present time (1872.) In the management of the 
national finances, he has had many difficulties to contend with, 
both from the interference of others, and the novelty of his 
position, many of the emergencies he has been called to meet 
being entirely without precedent. His nature and habit incline 
him to, perhaps, an excess of caution ; and the petty details of 
his early experience in a country store are not, it may be, the 
best preparation for the comprehensive sweep and the vast 
movements of a national treasury, which disburses its four or 
five hundred millions or more annually. Yet his financial man- 
agement has been, taken as a whole, a success. He has extin- 
guished three hundred and thirty millions of the public debt; 
has made a very good beginning in funding the remainder at 
five per cent, or less; has kept down the price of gold, and 
when he deemed interference called for, has always interfered 
for the people and against the speculators. 

Mr. Boutwell is a man of judicial mind, instinctive sagacity, 
strong memory, iron will, indomitable perseverance, great power 
of mental concentration, and entire self-command. His ener- 
gies never seem to flag. His fine voice, distinct articulation and 
deliberate but earnest delivery, make him an impressive speaker. 
His style is clear and vigorous. He is too earnest to deal in^ 
sallies of wit, the play of imagination, or ornaments of rhetoric,* 



GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 275 

but be is always sincere and impressive. His mind, wbile full 
of information, patient in details, and accurate in tbe minutest 
point, grasps easily great questions, and tends to broad and rapid 
generalizations. He bas trained bimself to " tbink on bis legs.'i 
He enjoys debate, excels in forensic contests, and seems always 
strongest in tbe closest grapple of mental combat. 



GEORGE MAXWELL ROBESON, 

SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 




faEORGE MAXWELL ROBESON was, until his appoint- 
ment to the Secretaryship of the Navy, a resident of Cam- 
den, New Jersey, where as a lawyer, he had attained emi- 

S nence, both in professional and social life. He is a son of 
William P. Robeson, a native of Philadelphia, who was an Asso- 
ciate judge of the Philadelphia county court. He comes from a 
family that have been long distinguished in both law and politics. 
His maternal uncle, J. P. Maxwell, and his grandfather, George 
C. Maxwell, were members of Congress from New Jersey. 

Mr. Robeson was bora in the town of Belvidere, Warren 
County, New Jersey, in the year 1829. At an early age he 
matriculated at Princeton College, and, when under eighteen 
years of age, graduated with distinguished honors. Subse- 
quently he began the study of law, at Newark, New Jersey, in 
the office of Chief Justice Hornblower, and although his learning 
and abilities fitted him to discharge the duties of his profession 
before he arrived at a legal age, he was obliged to wait that 
period under the rules of the court, before being admitted to 
practice. 

Commencing his professional duties at Newark, he subse- 
quently removed to Jersey City, where the larger commercial 
and manufacturing interests and population afforded a wider 

field for his abilities. 
276 



GEORGE MAXWELL ROBESON. 277 

In 1855 Governor Newell appointed Mr, Robeson Prosecutor 
of the Pleas of Camden county, and he became a resident of Cam- 
den, holding his office of public prosecutor until 1860. 

Retiring from that office he became a law partner of Alden'C. 
Scovel, Esq., but in the year 1865, when Mr. Theodore F. 
Frelinghuysen, then Attorney General of New Jersey, was elected 
Senator, he recommended Mr. Robeson to the vacant Attorney- 
Generalship, to which position Governor Ward appointed him. 

Mr. Robeson has always taken an active part in politics, and 
was one of the most ardent and able supporters of the war policy 
of the Government through all our late troubles. 

He was a member of the Sanitary Commission, and was from 
the first associated with the Union League of Philadelphia. In 
1862 he was appointed by Governor Olden a Brigadier-General, 
and commanded a camp of volunteers at Woodbury, New Jersey 
for the organization of troops. Mr. Robeson is in the prime of 
life, and is universally esteemed for his abilities and his agree- 
able social character. 

His nomination as Secretary of the Navy, June 25th, 1869, 
though somewhat surprising, since he had not been known in 
political circles outside of his own State, was not, on the whole, 
injudicious. He had had no special training in naval matters, 
nor any particular acquaintance with marine affairs, but in these 
matters he was probably as well informed as many of his prede- 
cessors, better, perhaps, than some of them ; and having spent 
most of his life in the vicinity of large seaports, he would natu- 
rally have been attracted to the interests of both our commercial 
and national marine. 

His administration of the Department has been, in general, very 
creditable to him. Charges were brought against him by a New 
York editor of corruption, fraud and malfeasance in office; but 
on a careful and thorough investigation by a committee of the 



278 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

House. of Kepresentatives, they were proved to have been un- 
founded, and the only instance in which there was ground for 
any semblance of blame was in his payment of the Secor (Jersey 
Gity) claim, after it had been once decided adversely by Con- 
gress and by an official Board of Examination. The claim was 
not, perhaps, unjust, and it was reasonable that the contractors, if 
wronged, should have some means of redress ; but it was a some- 
what dangerous stretch of official authority for the head of a 
department to order a large payment made to them on his own 
motion, after it had been adjudicated by the only competent 
authority that they had been paid in full. It is due to him to say, 
however, that in this case there was no just imputation in regard 
to his honesty and integrity, but that his action was only an error 
of judgment in regard to the scope of his official powers. 

Mr. Robeson unquestionably possesses a high order of talent, 
and may be regarded as one of the ablest administrative officers 
of the Government. 

His genial temper, graceful address and fascinating manners, 
render him deservedly popular in private life. 



GEORGE H. WILLIAMS, 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 




HE present Attorney-General of the United States, 
George H. Williams, was born in Columbia county, 
New York, on the 28d day of March, 1823 ; received 
an academical education at an academy in Onondaga 
county ; studied law, and was admitted to tlje bar in 1844. He 
immediately sought a field for the exercise of his talents in the 
"Great West," and located in tlie young and growing State of 
Iowa. Ilere he displayed energy, probity, and versatile talents 
which attracted attention, and resulted, not only in a flattering 
professional business, but in the honor of being elected, in 1847, 
Judge of the First Judicial District of that State, a position 
which he occupied, with credit to himself and to the general 
satisfaction of the public, until 1852. In that year he was a 
presidential elector from Iowa, and received, in 1853, from Presi- 
dent Pierce, the appointment of Chief Justice of the then Terri- 
tory of Oregon, to which he was again reappointed in 1857, by 
President Buchanan, but resigned. He was elected a member 
of the State Constitutional Convention of Oregon in 1858; and 
in 1865 took his seat in the United States Seriate, as a Union 
Republican, from that State (succeeding B. F. Harding, Union 
Republican), his term expiring March 4th, 1871. 

His course on the bench and as Senator was characterized by 
Bound judgment, fine legal abilities, and unquestioned honesty 

279 



280 MEN OP OUR DAY 

of principle and purpose. In Congress he served on many im- 
portant committees, such as the Standing Committee on Claims, 
Private Land Claims, Finance, and the Special Committees on 
the Rebellious States and Reconstruction, Expenses of Senate, 
and the National Committee to accompany the remains of the 
martyred Lincoln from "Washington to his home in Illinois. 

His remarkable legal attainments, and especially his profound 
knowledge of constitutional and international law made his 
name prominent for the position of Attorney -General when 
Judge Hoar resigned, but the President for some cause selected 
Judge Akerman of Georgia, who in turn resigned in January, 
1872, when Judge Williams was tendered the oflEice and accepted 
it. The Attornej'' -General's office can boast of many eminent 
names, men like Reverdy Johnson, Judge Black, William M. 
Bvarts, and others, who brought to it the lustre of great reputa- 
tions, but it has been filled by no jurist of higher ability or 
more spotless reputation than the present incumbent. 



JACOB DOLSON COX. 

J\T has always seemed to us that Plutarch was guilty of 
1 holding up to undeserved scorn, that Athenian citizen 
~ whom he represents as having applied to Aristides to 
^3 inscribe on his shell his own name, that he might vote 
to banish that eminently just magistrate. Plutarch says that the 
judge asked him if he knew anything against Aristides. " No," 
he replied ; " but he was tired with hearing everyone call him 
the Just." The man was not so far out of the way, after all. 
Aristides was undoubtedly an upright and just ruler, but he 
lacked sympathy with humanity, and that personal attraction or 
magnetism which made many worse men more popular and bet- 
ter loved than he, and the poor fellow who wanted him banished, 
really revolted not against his being called the "Just," but at 
his not being also the " merciful" and the sympathizing magis- 
trate. 

Something of this same feeling has always prevented General 
Cox from being a popular idol. He is eminently a correct, just, 
upright man; he is a fine scholar, accomplished in all directions ; 
he was a good though not a great soldier, always safe but never 
daring; he had the respect of his troops, though not their love; 
he was an able and judicious legislator ; he made a good record 
as Governor, though he was never popular. Ilis administration 
of the Department of the Interior was skilful and successful, but 
he made no friends, and when he withdrew on the alleged ground 

that he could not be a party to corrupt and fraudulent disposi* 

281 



28:s MEN OF OUR DAY. 

tion of the public lands, his protest, though admirably written, 
was so cold and formal that it carried very little weight with it 
He was "the just," undoubtedly, but people had become weary 
of a justice which lacked soul, which had no sympathies with 
the living, throbbing, and oft-times sinning heart of humanity. 

The Germans have a legend that the Frost King found one 
night that a daring traveller had invaded his dominions. Though 
very angry, he did not, as he might have done, destroy the in- 
truder ; he only touched his breast with his icy finger, and 
thenceforward the man wherever he went bore a frozen heart in 
his bosom. We incline to the belief that this man with the fro- 
zen heart had a numerous progeny. But to our biographical 
sketch. 

Jacob Dolson Cox was born in Montreal, Canada, October 
27th, 1828, during the temporary residence of his parents (who 
were citizens of New York) in that city. His mother was a 
lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower. 
He removed to Ohio in 1846, graduated from Oberlin College in 
1851, and commenced the practice of the law at Warren, Ohio, 
in 1852. Not long after he married a daughter of Eev. Charles 
G. Finney, D.D., the eloquent and able president of Oberlin 
College. 

A man of scholarly habits, Mr. Cox soon distinguished him- 
self by his attainments in literature, history, philosophy and 
military and political science. He was withal a well read and 
very able lawyer, a fine horseman, a good fencer, and for a 
militia officer, remarkable for his knowledge of the practice as 
well as the theory of military manoeuvres. He had been com- 
missioned Brigadier-General in the Ohio militia before he had 
attained his thirtieth year, and was so able a politician as to be 
sent to the Ohio Senate from the Trumbull and Mahoning Dis- 
trict in 1859. Here he and James A. Garfield, one of the lead- 



JACOB DOLSON COX. 283 

ing members of the last three Congresses, and himself subse- 
quently a general of Volunteers, were reckoned the leaders of 
the Eadical wing of Ohio Eepublicans. 

When the President's proclamation of April 15th, 1861, was 
received. Senator Cox entered with a great deal of spirit into 
the work of organizing the Ohio contingent, and was at once 
commissioned, by Governor Dennison, Brigadier-General of Ohio 
Volunteers, that he might do this work more effectually. He 
organized and prepared the Ohio troops for the field at Camp 
Dennison, and reenlisted most of them as three years regiments. 

About the 1st of July General Cox was commissioned, by 
President Lincoln, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, ante-dating 
from May 15th, 1861, and soon after was called into the field. 
We have not space to go over his war record in any great detail ; 
but as we follow him through the campaign in Western 
Virginia under McClellan and Rosecrans, now advancing and 
accomplishing what he had been directed to do, carefully and 
well ; now compelled to fall back by the greatly superior force 
of the enemy ; but always doing so, in good order and without 
serious loss ; as we review his movements under Fremont's un- 
fortunate campaign in the Shenandoah, his subsequent connection 
with the Army of Virginia, just as it was merged in the Army 
of the Potomac, his bravery and good conduct at South Moun- 
tain, at Antietam, and subsequently in his old command of West 
Virginia, we find him always cautious, always discreet and safe, 
but never bold, daring, or dashing ; always commanding the 
respect of his men, never winning their admiration by his fear- 
lessness ; never gaining their warm love by his personal magne- 
tism. In the spring of 1863, he was ordered back to Ohio, and 
commanded the District of Ohio under General Burnside. In 
December he took part in the defence of Knoxville, and in the 
Atlanta campaign commanded the Third Division of the Twenty- 



284 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

third Corps, or as it was oftenest called "the Army of the 
Ohio." 

He had been nominated as Major-General of Volunteers by 
President Lincoln, in the winter of 1862-3, but dropped before 
confirmation, through no fault of his own, but because, through 
a misunderstanding, the President had nominated too many. He 
went through the Atlanta campaign with great credit, though 
still only a Brigadier, never originating a measure, but obeying 
orders silently, firmly and effectively ; had returned to Nashville 
with Thomas and Schofield in pursuit of Hood, and had a con- 
spicuous and honorable part in the fierce battle of Franklin; 
and one as creditable though less bloody in the crowning two days' 
fight at Nashville, and the subsequent pursuit of Hood. On the 
strong recommendation of Generals Sherman and Schofield he 
was commissioned a Major-General, to rank from December 7th, 
1864. Transferred with General Schofield to the Atlantic coast, 
he took an honorable part in the battles about Wilmington 
and Kinston, North Carolina, and effected a junction with Gen- 
eral Sherman at Goldsboro. 

He had charge of the mustering out of the Ohio troops till 
near the close of the year, when having been elected Governor 
of Ohio, he resigned his military to accept his civil office. 

He had the reputation of a prudent, skilful and safe military 
commander, as well as his literary, professional and scientific 
attainments to serve as capital for his candidacy for the office of 
Governor ; but he had well-nigh defeated himself by that cold 
heart of his. Some of his old Oberlin friends addressed certain 
inquiries to him relative to the status of the African, and the 
then vexed question of negro suffrage. He had been reared and 
educated an Abolitionist, had been trained in an Anti-slavery 
College, had married the daughter of one of the most fearless 
anti-slavery men of our time ; he had represented in the Ohio 



JACOB DOLSON COX. 285 

Senate the strongest Anti-slavery district in Ohio, and there had 
distinguished himself as a Radicalof the Radicals, and in the 
army had always been sternly just as the defender of the African 
against hU numerous foes. Yet now, when all Ohio was ablaze 
with a feeling of sympathy for the down-trodden race, and a desire 
to lift them up, he coldly expressed in his reply his belief that the 
nation would not tolerate negro suffrage, and that, probably, the 
best thing which could be done for the race would be to deport 
them to Africa or Hayti, and colonize the whole three or four 
millions. This letter greatly reduced the Republican majority 
in the State, and caused him to run considerably behind' the 
rest of the ticket. 

Soon after his inauguration he did another foolish thing. He 
espoused the cause of Andrew Johnson, advocated some of his 
worst acts, and addressed an urgent and well-written letter to the 
Ohio Senators and Representatives in Congress to bring them over 
to his views. Mr. Johnson before long went so far that the cau- 
tious Governor was unwilling to follow; but the whilom radical 
had become intensely conservative. He declined a renomina- 
tion, which would have been an inevitable defeat, and returned 
to the practice of his profession at Cincinnati, where he was 
soon in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative business. 

On General Grant's election to the Presidency, he called ex- 
Governor Cox to the Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. The 
appointment was not a bad one, for he was fully competent for 
its duties, and might have made that department much better in 
every respect than it ever had been. But his evil genius again 
prevailed. He was not in sympathy with the other members of 
the Cabinet, and perhaps not with his chief, and his rulings very 
soon began to conflict with those of the other secretaries. A Cali- 
fornia mining claim relating to a great quicksilver deposit had 
been in litigation before the Government for twelve or fifteen 



286 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

years, and after the most careful examination by the law officer 
of the Government and the Committee on Claims of Congress, 
had been decided. To their ruling Secretary Cox took excep- 
tion, and proposed to reverse it. Finding this impossible, he 
addressed a caustic letter to the President, denouncing the fraud 
and corruption which he said was rife in the Government, and 
resigned his office, November 1, 1870. The occasion for this 
diatribe was one where he was so evidently in the wrong that 
his resignation lost much of the force and dignity which might 
otherwise have pertained to it. He returned to Cincinnati and 
resumed his practice. At the " Liberal Eepublican " National 
Convention held at Cincinnati, May 3d and 4th, 1872, ex-Secre 
tary Cox was a member, and received some votes for the Presi 
dential nomination. He was very active in his advocacy of the 
free-trade doctrines, and, we believe, thus far refuses to support 
the nominees of that convention. 



SIMON CAMERON. 



JUl 



3,^ IMON CAMERON, born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 8th, 1799, was left an orphan at the age 
of nine years, and acquired his education by a diligent 
improvement of all the facilities which he could secure, 
while an apprentice in a newspaper and printing office. As such 
he worked at " the case " in Harrisburg, Pa., and at Washington, 
D. C, finally striking out on his own account as editor of the 
Pennsylvania Intelligencer^ at Doylestown, Pa. In 1822 he 
became the publisher and editor of a newspaper at Harrisburg, 
which strongly advocated the claims of General Jackson for the 
Presidency. In 1832 he was President of the Middletown Bank, 
which he had established ; and of two Railroad Companies, as 
well as holding the responsible position of Adjutant-General of 
the State. In 1845 he was elected United States Senator from 
Pennsylvania, and served until 1849 ; and in 1851 was re-elected 
for the term ending in 1863, voting in that body, amongst other 
things, for Douglas' proposition to extend the Missouri Compro- 
mise line to the Pacific. After the repeal of that Compromise, 
in 1854, and the attempt to force slavery on the people of Kan- 
sas, he identified himself with the " People's Party " in Pennsyl- 
vania: in 1856 voted for Fremont for the Presidency; and in 
the Chicago Convention of 1860, was spoken of as a candidate 
for the same high office, having the third place on the first ballot 

after which his name was withdrawn, 

287 



288 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

President Lincoln, on his accession to office, March 4th, 1861, 
nominated Afr. Cameron for Secretary of War, and he resigned 
his seat in the United States Senate to accept the place in the 
Cabinet. The condition of the Department of War at the time 
when he took charge of it, is thus briefly but graphically 
described by him : "Upon my appointment to the position, I 
found the department destitute of all means of defence, without 
guns and with literally no prospect of purchasing the material 
of war. I found the nation without any army, and there was 
scarcely a man throughout the whole War Department in whom 
I could put any trust. The Adjutant-General deserted; the 
Quartermaster-General ran off; the Commissary-General was on 
his death-bed ; more than half the clerks were disloyal." 

This condition of things, in a capital menaced by a well or 
ganized rebel army without, and by hordes of traitorous officials 
and spies within, was truly appalling ; but Mr. Cameron possessed 
nerve and loyalty, and was nobly seconded by the loyalty of the 
Northern States. All tliat man coi:ld do, he did ; and shared, 
with his great Chief, the awful burden of anxiety which accom- 
panied those earlier months of the war for the suppression of the 
rebellion. He made strenuous efforts to secure the counter- 
manding of the order for battle, which resulted so disastrously 
in the failure in the first Bull Run fight, in which he lost 
a brother, Colonel James Cameron, who was killed while leading 
a charge of the New York 79th (Highlanders) regiment. 

In his Annual Report to the President, of the operations of 
his department, December 1st, 1861, he spoke boldly and at con- 
siderable length of the policy (to which he had become a eon- 
vert) of recognizing slavery as the Union's real assailant, and 
fighting her accordingly. This portion of the Secretary's report 
was stricken out by President Lincoln (who had not, at that 
time, reached this point, to which he was afterwards forced by 



SIMON CAMERON. 289 

tlie necessity of events), and a more moderate and briefer allu- 
sion to the subject was substituted therefor. 

After ten months of anxious and unfaltering attention to the 
weighty duties devolved upon him, Mr. Cameron, whose health 
was seriously impaired, resigned, January 13th, 1862, and was 
succeeded as Secretary of War by the late Edwin M. Stanton. 
He was then sent as Minister to St. Petersburgh, but soon 
returned, arriving in the United States in November, 1862. 
In 1864, he was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention, as well 
as to that of the "Loyalists" at Philadelphia in 1866, and in 
January, 1867, again took his seat in the United States Senate 
from Pennsylvania, as a Union Eepublican (succeeding Edgar 
Cowan, Democrat) for the term ending 3d of March, 18.73. In 
February, 1871, he succeeded Mr. Sumner as Chairman of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs; and has served conspicuously 
on the Committees on Military Affairs, Ordnance, etc. 

Mr. Cameron has great experience in political affairs, and pos- 
sesses executive ability of a high order. He has for many years 
past ruled his party in Pennsylvania, sometimes, as in the late- 
nomination for Governor, carrying matters with a very high 
hand, and securing the nomination of men personally distasteful 
to a considerable portion of the party, but by thorough disci- 
pline he has usually succeeded in securing their election. Some- 
times he has carried this imperialism a little too far, and has 
defeated the objects he desired to acccomplish. 

An active business life and great skill in financial movements 
have resulted in accumulating for Mr. Cameron a very large for- 
tune, and his influential connection with the great railroad and 
mining corporations has enabled him to exert more political power 
than he could otherwise have done. For years rumors of his con- 
tion with jobs and corruption have been rife, and the numerous 

"jobs" which were perfected during his service in President 
19 



290 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Lincoln's Cabinet were adduced as evidence of the truth of these 
rumors. In any great national disaster or struggle, the cormo- 
rants are sure to gather and seize on their prej, and Secretary 
Cameron's rather loose notions on this subject made him less 
careful than he should have been, and undoubtedly led in part 
to his resignation. That he was a partner in or personally cog- 
nizant of these frauds, is wholly improbable, but he had not 
that quick eye to detect fraudulent intention in others, nor that 
stern and inflexible determination to punish it, which was so 
grand a characteristic of Secretary Stanton. 

Since the war, whether in public or private life, save for the 
domineering spirit to which we have alluded, Mr. Cameron's 
course has been without reproach, and in his position as Chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, his fine abilities and 
his large knowledge of our relations to the European Govern- 
ments, have made him an able successor to Senator Sumner, if 
the change was needful. We need not say that Senator Came- 
ron is a staunch supporter of President Grant. 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 




(ir'HIS eminent diplomatist comes of an illustrious lineage. 
The only son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President 
of the Kepublic, who survived his father, and the grand- 
son of John Adams, the second President of the United 
States, he inherits patriotic sentiments, and has done honor, in 
his public career, to some of the noblest names in our nation's 
past history. 

Charles Francis Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts, 
August 18, 1807. At the age of two years, he was taken by his 
father to St. Petersburg, where he remained for the next six 
years, his father being United States Minister at the Eussian 
Court. During his residence at the Eussian capital, he learned 
to speak the Eussian, German and French, as well as the English. 
In February, 1815, he made the perilous journey from St. Pe- 
tersburg to Paris, with his mother, in a private carriage, to meet 
his father. The intrepidity of Mrs. Adams, in undertaking such 
a journey in midwinter, and when all Europe was in a state of 
commotion, gave evidence that the courage and daring which her 
son inherited, were not all due to the father's side. 

John Quincy Adams was next appointed Minister to England, 
and during his residence there, he placed Charles at a boarding 
school, where, in accordance with the brutal practices in vogue 

in the English schools, he was obliged to fight his English 

291 



292 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

schoolfellows in defence of the honor of America. But, young 
as he was, he was too pluckj to be beaten, and maintained his 
country's cause with as much valor, though probably with less 
intelligence, than he has since been called to exercise in its 
behalf. 

In 1817, his father was recalled to America, to become Secre- 
tary of State in President Monroe's administration, and young 
Adams, on his return, was placed in the Boston Latin school, 
from whence he entered Harvard College, in 1821, and gradu- 
ated there with honor in 1825. His father was at this time 
President, and the son spent the next two years in Washington; 
but, in 1827, returned to Massachusetts, and commenced the 
study of the law in the office of Daniel Webster. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1828, but did not engage actively in 
practice. 

In 1829, Mr. Adams married a daughter of Peter C. Brooks, 
an opulent merchant of Boston, another of whose daughters was 
the wife of Hon. Edward Everett. The first years of Mr. Adams' 
manhood were mostly passed with his books, and in literary 
and scientific pursuits. Though strongly averse to partizan 
politics and the petty squabbles for office and plunder, which 
then occupied the minds of the politicians of the day, it was im- 
possible that, with his birthright and broad culture, he should 
not devote a considerable part of his studies to political science 
and statesmanship. He wrote able articles on topics involving 
a large knowledge of both, in the North American Review, and 
other periodicals, between 1830 and 18-15. He also edited at 
this time the letters of Mrs. John Adams, and gathered the docu- 
ments for the " Life and Works of John Adams, second Presi- 
dent of the United States." He was nominated, in 1810, as Kepre- 
sentative-in the Massachusetts Legislature; but he had no poli- 
tical aspirations, and declined to be a candidate. At his father's 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 293 

request, however, he consented to be a candidate the next year, 
and was elected for three years successively, and was then chosen 
State Senator for two years. This period (1841-1846) was one 
of violent struggle, and eventually of disruption between the 
two wings of the Whig party, the time-serving or " Cotton 
Whigs," and the '•'Conscience Whigs," who subsequently, with 
large additions from the Democracy, formed the Kepublican 
part3^ Of the "Conscience Whigs," Mr, Adams was the ac- 
knowledged leader. Some of his reports, and his " Review of 
the Proceedings of the Legislature of 1843," were very remark- 
able for their breadth of view, their enunciation of great prin- 
ciples of statesmanship, and their clear and vigorous style. While 
he was a member of the Senate, the State of Massachusetts sent 
Judge Hoar to South Carolina, to endeavor, by peaceful measures, 
to put an end to the imprisonment of colored sailors from Massa- 
chusetts in South Carolipian jails, whenever they entered any 
of the ports of that state. Judge Hoar was treated wiih great 
indignity, and driven from the State by a mob. The Massa- 
chusetts Legislature hereupon appointed a joint committee, of 
which Mr. Adams was chairman, to draw up a " Declaration 
and Protest," to be forwarded to the President and the Gover- 
nors of the respective States, This paper, prepared by Mr. 
Adams, is a document wortliy of its occasion and its author, a 
masterly exposition of the legal and Constitutional aspects of 
the question, and a model of weighty and impressive eloquence. 
The opposition in Massachusetts, as well as in other Northern 
States, to the admission of Texas into the Union as a slave 
State, found a voice and a leader in Mr. Adams. In the winter 
of 1846, a committee, of which he was chairman, maintained a 
campaign paper called Tlie Free SUite Rally ^ and sent on to 
Washington, from Massachusetts alone, remonstrances with 
nearly sixty thousand signatures, against the admission of 



294 MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

Texas as a slave State. This act in reality severed tbe connec- 
tion between Mr, Adams and the Cotton Wbigs, and, late in 
1846, he founded and conducted politically for some months, a 
daily paper called the Boston Whig. The " Conscience Whigs" 
were bitterly maligned and abused by the pro-slavery men of 
the party, and the severance of the slight bonds which held the 
two together was beginning to be felt as a necessity. In the 
measures which resulted somewhat later, in the formation of the 
Free Soil Party, the Boston Whig did good service. The 
State Whig Convention of September, 1847, was the last in 
which Mr. Adams, Mr. Sumner, Judge Allen and other Con- 
science Whigs, attempted to take part in any so-called Whig 
Convention. The Free Soil party was organized in most of the 
Northern States in the spring of 1848, and in the summer of 
that year its Convention at Buffalo nominated Martin Yan 
Buren for President, and Charles Fi-ancis Adams for Vice-Presi- 
d'ent. The vote for these candidates was a protest, and a vigor- 
ous one, against Pro-Slavery aggression ; it could be nothing 
more. In the five or six years which followed, there was a com- 
plete break-up of the Whig party, and the Free Soil party was 
in part swallowed up in the temporary but short-lived success 
of the " American " or " Know-Nothing " organization, but soon 
emerged in the " Republican party," which took shape and form 
early in 1855. 

Durino- the chaotic condition of parties, Mr. Adams had stood 
aloof from politics, sickened with the corruption of many of 
the party leaders, yet powerless, for the time, to check it, and it 
■was not till the emergence of the new and purer party from the 
seethino- mass, that he again mingled in political circles. Mean- 
time, he had devoted himself with great assiduity to the memoir 
of his grandfather and the careful editing of his works. This 
valuable contribution to the early history of our country is 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 295 

written with that elegant scholarship which marks all Mi. 
Adams' compositions, and is remarkably impartial in its details 
of the life of the venerable President. It occupies ten volumes. 
In the autumn of 1858, Mr. Adams was called from his literary 
pursuits to represent his district in Congress. His course there, 
on the eve of the rebellion, was worthy of the great name he 
bore and of his own previous history. Calm, dignified, yet 
tenacious in his adherence to the great principles of right, he 
was such a representative as it became Massachusetts to have at 
such a time. In the summer and autumn of I860, he took part 
in the Presidential canvass, supporting Mr. Lincoln in many 
able speeches, in the Northwestern States. That he supported, 
both in committee and in his place in the House, the resolutions 
disavowing, on the part of the free States, any right, under the 
Constitution, to interfere with Slavery in States where it was 
already established, or to hinder by law the reclamation of fugi- 
tiv^es, and the bill for the admission of New Mexico as a State,* 
leaving its citizens at liberty in respect to a constitutional admis- 
sion or prohibition of Slavery, is not to be denied. Looking at 
these questions in the light o^ the present, it seems astonisliing 
that he could have made even such concessions as these to the 
Slave power ; but that was the hour of darkness, and many Re- 
publicans, who afterwards stood up boldly for freedom, went 
much farther than Mr. Adams in their concessions at this time. 
Mr. Adams, unlike most of these, made these propositions his 
ultimatum, declaring war preferable, with all its horrors, to any 
further attempts at conciliation. Bat the Southern leaders were 
mad upon their idols; they would hear nothing of compromise, 
and in heart, if not in word, assented to Jefferson Davis's decla- 
ration, "That if the North would give him carle hlanche to make 
such propositions as he would be satisfied with, he would reject 
the offer." So, happily and well for the North, all these offers 



296 MEN OP OUR DAY. 

of conciliation failed of success, and the war commenced. Mr. 
Adams was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress; but, in 
the spring of 1861, Mr. Lincoln nominated him as minister to 
England, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate, and in 
the first week of May he sailed from Boston to enter on his 
duties. He was now in the sphere for the exercise and mani- 
festation of his rare qualities. They were illustrated by the 
great discouragements which he had to encounter. The armed 
rebellion had broken out. The ministry and the ruling classes ol 
England were unfriendly. The Tory party could not but wel- 
com.e the prospect of a downfall of the great republic, whose pros- 
perity had so potently backed up the argument of English friends 
to free principles and free institutions. The Whig aristocracy, 
alarmed by the progressive radicalism of their own allies at 
home, were not unwilling that it should receive a check from 
the foilure of the American experiment. Except the great names 
t)f the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden, there were 
few in the first rank of English statesmen who looked favorably 
or justly on the rights or the prospects of this country. In the 
commercial circles in which, sin6e the squirarchy has become 
more enlightened, the intensest burliness of John Bullism resides, 
the ruin of the great maritime power across the water was a 
welcome conclusion. The suffering that would fall on the labor- 
ing classes in consequence of the stoppage of the supply of cot- 
ton from America was apparent, and the decision with which, as 
it proved, they not only refrained from pressing their govern- 
ment into hostile measures, but pronounced their advocacy of 
that cause of freedom in America which they instinctively felt 
to be their own, showed a sense and magnanimity which it would 
nave seemed visionary to look for. The clergy, from Cornwall 
Jo the Tweed, rejoiced in the new demonstration that social 
order was only to be had under the shadow of a church-sustain- 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 297 

ing throne. The Carlton Club was elate. The Reform Club 
was bewildered and double minded. Lord Palmerston, even 
beyond his wont, was flippant and cheerful. 

Mr. Adams stepped into the circle collected, prepared, grave, 
dignified, self-poised, with the port of one who felt that he had 
great rights to secure, that he knew how to vindicate them, and 
that he had a stout power behind him for their maintenance. 
The British ministry — not over-reluctant themselves — were 
pressed by solicitations from across the Channel, as well as by 
taunts and importunities at home, to espouse the cause of the 
insurgent States. Had they done so, it will not do to say that 
we should have failed to come victorious out of the contest, but 
without doubt we should have won our victory at immeasurably 
greater cost. That they were held to a neutrality, however im- 
perfect, instead of proceeding to an active intervention, was 
largely due to the admirable temper and ability with which our 
diplomacy was conducted. A short time sufficed to make it appear 
that Mr. Adams was not to be bullied, or cajoled, or hoodwinked, 
or irritated into an invprudence, and every day of his long resi- 
dence near the British court brought its confirmation to that 
profitable lesson. Under provocations and assumptions the more 
offensive for being sheathed in soft diplomatic phrase, not a pet- 
ulant word was to be had from the American minister, nor a 
word, on the other hand, indicative of a want of proud confi- 
dence in the claims and in the future of his country. A timid and 
yielding temper would have invited encroachments : a testy 
humor or discourteous address would have been seized upon as 
excuse for reserve or counter-irritation. Nor by the prepar- 
ation of study was he less equal to the difficult occasion than by 
native qualities of mind and character, as was proved more than 
once when. Lord John having flattered himself that he had dis- 
covered some chink in our mail in some passage of our treat- 



298 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ment of Spain and the South American republics, the pert 
diplomatist had to learn that it would be prudent for him to go 
into a more careful reading of the records of past American 
administrations. It is of less consequence to say that Mr. 
Adams' personal accomplishments, his familiarity with the 
usages of elegant society, his cultivated taste in art, his profound 
scholarship, and his acquaintance with the classical historians, 
orators and poets (a sort of attainment nowhere more considered 
than in England), added to the estimation which attached to him. 
Going to that country in circumstances of the extremest per- 
plexity and trial, he left it, after seven years, the object of uni- 
versal respect, and of an extent and earnestness of private re- 
gard seldom accorded, in any circumstances, to the representa- 
tive of a foreign power. To maintain at once an inflexible and 
an inoffensive attitude, to assert, without a jot or tittle of abate- 
ment, a counti-y's unconceded right, yet expose no coign of 
vantage to the aggressor by a rash advance, to enforce justice 
and tranquillize passion at the same time, is the consummate 
achievement, the last crowning grace, of diplomacy. 

After Mr. Adams was recalled from England at his own re- 
quest, as in former years, he lived in Boston in the winter, and 
in the summer months managed his extensive farm at Quincy, 
eight miles from town, where he occupied the mcient house 
which John Adams, attached to it by early recollections, pur- 
chased before his return from Europe in 1788, In a secure 
building which he lately erected on the estate, Mr. Adams ar- 
rano-ed the voluminous manuscripts left by his grandfather and 
his father, and the large library of Mr. John Quincy Adams. It 
is understood that he has been occupied in preparing for publi- 
cation, a selection from the writings of his illustrious father. In 
December, 1870, he came from his retirement to pronounce, 
before the New York Historical Society, a discourse, which has 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 299 

since been published, containing a masterly exposition of the 
debt of the world to the American government for its persistent 
maintenance, from first to last, of the doctrine of the right of a 
nation to preserve its own neutrality ; in other words, the right 
of a nation to remain in peace when other nations go to war — a 
doctrine laid down b}' Mr. Wheaton as " incontestable," but 
which, in fact, was never valid, from the beginning of time till 
this new people asserted and established it. 

In the summer of 1871, he was nominated by the President as 
the American Commissioner in the arbitration provided for by 
tlie Treaty of Washington, ratified in July, and has twice visited 
Geneva and Paris on that mission. No appointment could have 
been so fitting and appropriate. 

Mr. Adams' name has often been mentioned in connection 
with the Presidency. We do not believe he desires it, and he 
is too eminent a statesman and too much of a gentleman and 
scholar, to be likely to be elected in a republic where mediocrity 
of talent and ability is preferred to genius, and a certain boorish- 
ness of manner is a surer passport to high political honors than 
refinement and culture. He has mingled but little in political 
matters since his return from England in 186S, but that he has 
his own decided opinions on the questions of the day, will be 
evident from the following letters. The first was written in 
reply to an invitation to visit Pittsburgh, and take part in the 
commemoration of Andrew Jackson's birthday : 

" Boston, Jan. 6, 1871. ; 

'^ Malcolm Hay, Esq., Secretary of the Committee: 

" Dear Sir : By some accidental dehxy your letter of the 31st 
ultimo, reached me only this morning. I feel much honored in 
receiving the invitation to visit you at Pittsburgh. My en- 
gagements at home, however, prevent me from moving at this 
time 



300 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

" Neither am I much in the way of expressing sentiments on 
present political topics. The country has passed through a 
violent convulsion, and is now slowly, but steadily, recovering 
itself. The main object should be to restore harmony and in- 
spire mutual confidence among all the jarring members. Our 
government draws its life from the ready consent of the 
governed. 

" When the distinguished hero, whose name your association 
bears, uttered those memorable words: 'The Union shall be 
preserved ! ' he undoubtedly rested his faith upon the sponta- 
neous co-operation of the great mass of the nation, responding 
to his call in the regular and legitimate channels prescribed by 
the organic law. He never contemplated the use of bayonets in 
controlling the forms of collecting the general suffrage. 

"Our safety as a nation, lies in going back to the first princi- 
ples, and forgetting that force has ever been resorted to as a 
painful necessity to preserve them. What was a bitter medicine 
should not be turned into daily food. 

" Very truly yours, 

"Charles Francis Adams." 

The second letter was one addressed to Hon. David A. Wells, 
in reply to a request that he would become a candidate for nomi- 
nation at the Cincinnati Convention : 

"Boston, April 18, 1872. 
" My Dear Mr. Wells : I have received your letter, and will 
answer it frankly. I do not want the nomination, and could 
only be induced to consider it by the circumstances under which 
it might possibly be made. If the call upon me were an une- 
quivocal one. based upon confidence in my character, earned in 
public life, and a belief that I would carry out in practice the 
principles which I professed, then indeed would come a test of 
my courage in an emergency ; but if I am to be negotiated for, 
and have assurances given that I am honest, you will be so kind 
as to draw me out of that crowd. With regard to what I un- 
derstand to be the declaration of principles, which has been 



CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 301 

made, it would seem ridiculous in me to stand haggling over 
them. With a single exception of ambiguity, I see nothing 
which any honest Eepublican or Democrat would not accept. 
Indeed, I should wonder at any one who denied them. The 
difficulty is not in the professions. It lies everywhere only in 
the manner in which they are carried into practice. If I have 
succeeded in making myself understood, you will perceive that 
I can give no authority to anyone to act or to speak for me in 
the premises. I never had a moment's belief that, when it came 
to the point, any one so entirely isolated as I am from all polit'- 
cal associations of any kind, could be made acceptable as a car • 
didate for public office; but I am so unlucky as to value that 
independence more highly than the elevation which is bought 
by a sacrifice of it. This is not inconsistent with the sense o.' 
grateful recognition of the many flattering estimates made ol 
my services in many and high quarters; but I cannot consent t) 
peddle with them for power. If the good people who meet at 
Cincinnati really believe that they need such an anomalous 
being as I am (which I do not), they must express it in a man- 
ner to convince me of it, or all their labor will be thrown awaj. 
I am, with great respect, yours, etc., 

" Charles Francis Adams. 
"David A. Wells, Esq., Norwich, Conn." 

At that Convention, held May 2d and 3d, 1872, Mr. Adams 
received 324 votes out of 715, being within 8 votes, on the 
original declaration of the sixth ballot, of Mr. Greeley, the suc- 
cessful candidate. 

In person, Mr. Adams is rather below than above the middle 
height. His figure, as he advances in life, tends somewhat to 
fullness, as did those of his father and grandfather. His head 
and features, worthily represented in the fine portrait by Hunt^ 
are strongly marked with the family likeness, and express the 
vigor, decision and repose of his mind and character. 



REVERDY JOHNSON. 



SeVERDY JOHNSON was born in Annapolis, Maryland, 
V on the 21st of May, 1796. He was the son oi the Hon. 



%•: 



John Johnson, who was the chief judge of the first 
judicial district of Maryland from 1811 until 1821, when 
he was appointed chancellor of the State of Maryland. 

Reverdy Johnson studied law with his father, and entered 
upon practice in Prince George's county, and in the city of An- 
napolis, in his native State. While pursuing his profession, he 
was engaged in reporting the decisions of the Court of Appeals 
of Maryland, having prepared the greater part of the well-known 
series of seven volumes of Harris and Johnson's Reports, which 
extended to some time in the year 1826. 

While pursuing this employment, and engaging in the active 
practice of his profession, he was appointed a deputy attorney- 
general of Maryland. 

In 1817, he removed to the city of Baltimore. In 1820, he 
was appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors. He held 
this office until 1821, when he was elected to the Senate of Mary- 
land. In this body he served for two years, and was re-elected, 
and served nearly two years longer as a State Senator. He then 
resigned the of&ce, in order to devote himself to a rapidly in- 
creasing practice, which he pursued until 18'15, with distin- 
guished ability and success, reaching, by general consent, the 

leadership of the Maryland bar. 
302 



REVERDY JOHNSON. 303 

In 1845, lie was elected a Senator in Congress. He retained 
this position until 1849, when he resigned it to accept the office 
of Attorney-General of the United States, tendered him by 
President Taylor. Upon the death of that President, he retired 
from office, and continued to practice in the Supreme Court ol 
the United States, in which he had established a great and well- 
deserved reputation as a jurist. He was obhged, by the exi- 
gency of the times, and by his own disposition to use every 
effort to restore tranquillity to the country, to re-enter political 
life in 1861. In that year he was a delegate to the Peace Con- 
gress. In 1862 he was elected, by the Legislature of Maryland, 
a Senator in Congress for the term commencing in 1863 and 
ending March 4th, 1869. 

His distinguished services in the Senate, during the period of 
the rebellion, and his masterly and vigorous efforts to maintain 
the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws during the pro- 
gress of the rebellion, and after its termination, are well known 
to the whole country. 

During the term of President Lincoln, he was sent to New 
Orleans, for the purpose of adjusting grave questions which had 
arisen with foreign governments, by reason of the alleged undue 
exercise of military and civil authority, by the general then 
commanding in Louisiana. His action in restraining and cor- 
recting the abuses, which he had been requested to remedy, was 
fully approved of by the Government at "Washington. 

Since the close of the rebellion, Mr. Johnson has, with signal 
ability, manifested his devotion to the Constitution of the United 
States, He has uniformly insisted that this instrument was as 
binding upon ourselves as upon those who sought to violate it 
in 1861. His selection as a member of the joint select com- 
mittee on reconstruction was most judicious, for no member of 



804 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the Senate was more tlioroughly informed on the subject, or 
more impartial. 

The debates in the Senate bear testimony to the earnest zeal 
with which he has endeavored to confine all parties and sections 
of the country within the boundaries of constitutional law. la 
so doing, he has not ministered to the prejudices or hostilities 
of any political organization, in order to win popularity or pro- 
mote his personal ambition. He has steadily disregarded the 
dictates of popular clamor and popular passion, and has been 
content to pursue that course which will secure to him the appro- 
bation of all good men and the applause of posterity. His 
political action has been so calm and impartial as to oe wholly 
judicial in character. This quality of mind, singularly dis- 
played through his senatorial career, was never more distinctly 
marked than during the trial of the President before the Senate. 

In May, 1868, President Johnson nominated him for minister 
to the court of St. James, as successor to Hon. Charles Francis 
Adams, and he was confirmed by unanimous vote of the Senate, 
In the ensuing autumn Mr. Johnson negotiated a treaty with the 
British Government covering the Alabama Claims, the North- 
western boundary controversy, etc. This treaty was laid be- 
fore the Senate in February 1869, and after discussion rejected, 
only one or two votes being recorded in its favor. In April, 
1869, Mr. Johnson was recalled, and John Lothrop Motley, the 
historian, appointed his successor. Since his return to the 
United States he has devoted himself to his profession, of which 
he is esteemed one of the ablest members. He was consulted in 
reference to the Washington Treaty of 1871, and approved of 
its provisions. Notwithstanding his advanced age, neither mind 
nor body seems to have lost any portion of its vigor, and so 
far as we can judge, he may rival the English statesmen and 
jurists in maintaining his position up to his ninetieth year. 



CALEB GUSHING. 




. ^^^^XiEB GUSHING, eminent as an orator, jurist and poli- 
tician, was born at Salisbury, Mass., January 17th, 1800, 
being the son of Captain John N. Gushing, an enterprising 
ship-owner of that town, and descended from an old colo- 
nial family largely represented in official positions of trust. Fit- 
ting for college at the public schools of his native town, he grad- 
uated from Harvard College, in 1817, when he gave the saluta- 
tory oration ; and was a student of Cambridge law-school in 1818. 
In 1819, he delivered the annual poem before the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society ; and, as candidate for the degree of A. M., pro- 
nounced an oration on the durability of the Federal Union. He 
was also appointed tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy 
at Harvard, which position he held until July, 1821, signalizing 
his resignation with a truly eloquent farewell address, strongly 
indicative of his own ambitious temperament. The addresses 
which he delivered before debating clubs, etc., at this time, 
show him to have been strongly impressed with the political 
grandeur of the Federal Union, and with intense devotion to its 
highest aims and welfare. In 1822 he was admitted to the Essex 
bar, and, in 1825, his political career began by his election as 
representative to the State Legislature from Newburyport, 
where he had commenced the practice of his profession. In the 

next year he was seated in the State Senate; published a " Ilistory 
20 305 



306 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

of Newburj'-port," and a " Treatise on the Practical Principles of 
Political Economy," having previously translated from the 
French, a work on '•' Maritime Contracts for Letting to Hire." 
He also pronounced a eulogy on Jefiferson and Adams, in New- 
buryport, about this time ; took an active part in the politics of 
the day (as a republican), and carried on a large and successful 
law practice until 1829. Meanwhile he had been a candidate 
for Congress, from the Essex district of Massachusetts, but was 
defeated through the prejudice excited by an unjust charge 
which was made against him, of recommending himself as a suita- 
ble incumbent, in the columns of the Boston Patriot. Shortly 
after this check to his aspirations, he made a European tour, 
(1829-1832) with his accomplished wife, the daughter of Hon. 
John Wilde of Boston, whom he had married in 1824, and who 
was the authoress of two volumes of " Letters Descriptive of Pub- 
lic Monuments, Scenery and Manners in France and Spain," 
published in 1832, after their return to America. During the 
same year, also, Mr. Gushing issued his " Eeminiscences of 
Spain — the Country, its People, History and Monuments," in 
two volumes; and with it another work in two volumes entitled 
"A Keview, Historical and Political, of the late Revolution in 
France," etc., and, also pronounced an admirable oration at New- 
buryport. In 1834: he addressed the American Institute of 
Instruction; delivered a eulogy on Lafayette, at Dover, New 
Hampshire, and wrote a reply to Cooper the novelist. These 
evidences of his mental power, together with his high character 
as a lawyer and a man, fully justified the choice of the good peo- 
ple of his adopted town, in electing him as their representative, 
in 1833 and '34, in the State, where he augumented his reputa- 
tion by his speech (which was afterwards published) on the cur- 
rency and public deposits. Again, in 1835, he ran for Congress, 
and was this time successful — retaining his seat by repeated 



CALEB GUSHING. 307 

re-elections until 1843. . While there his literary inclinations 
were by no means obscured by his interest in national politics, 
as was evidenced by his frequent contributions to the North Ameri- 
can Review ; his tasteful articles on the legal and social condition 
of women ; his review of " Boccaccio ; " essays on Columbus and 
Americus Vespucci, and an oration before the Literary Societies 
of Amherst College, August 22, 1836, on " Popular Eloquence, 
and its Power in our Republic." Another oration, delivered at 
Springfield, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1839, — shortly 
after the acquisition of Louisiana in a manner deemed by many 
to be a flagrant violation of the constitution, — forcibly urged the 
necessity of repressingan undue national ambition ; while an oration 
delivered the same year before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at 
Cambridge, on the " Errors of Popular Reformers," displayed 
great ability and ready rhetorical powers. In Congress he was 
ever alive and alert to the interests of his constituents, and to 
what he deemed important national measures. His speeches 
were dignified, vigorous and effective, characterized by purity 
of style and depth of reflection. On all subjects he could speak 
sensibly and effectively, in a manner that betrayed diligence of 
study and preparation. One of his most effective displays of 
oratory was his answer, in the winter session of 1836, to an out- 
rageously abusive speech of Ben Hardin, of Kentucky, wherein 
he alluded to the cod-fishery, wooden-nutmeg and tin peddling 
of New England, whose people, he said, could see a dollar with 
the naked eye afar off as through a telescope. 

The debate gave rise in part to an excellent article in the North 
American Review, entitled "Misconceptions of the New Eng- 
land Character," which was ascribed to Mr. Cushing's pen. In 
the early part of his Congressional career, be was a Whig ; — was 
in 1840, an earnest advocate for Harrison's election to the Presi- 
dency, which he materially aided by writing a life of the old 
hero, which was largely circulated throughout the country. 



308 WEN OF OUK DAY. 

On Harrison's decease, Mr. Gushing, with Wise of Virginia, 
and others, openly espoused the measures of the Tyler adminis- 
tration, and he has since been generally identified ^^'th the 
Democratic party, — his Congressional career being distinguished 
by unusual application to public business, eloquence, and par- 
liamentary accomplishments of a high order — making his 
influence felt not only on the floor, but in the deliberations of com- 
mittees, caucuses, etc., and he had occasion to make many volumi- 
nous reports and submit them for legislative action. In 184:3, he 
was three times nominated by Presitlcut Tyler as Secretary of 
the Treasury, being each time rejected by the Senate; and, in 
July, 1843, was appointed United States Commissioner to China ; 
sailed in the steam-frigate Missouri, which was burned oft' Gib- 
raltar, in August of that year— but fortunately rescued all his 
oHicial papers from destruction — and without awaiting any 
further instrnctions from the Government, proceeded directly to 
China {via Egypt and India), and within six months had suc- 
cessfully negotiated a treaty, which was signed at Wanghia, 
July 8, 1844, and finally ratified between the two great powers, 
December 31, 1845. 

Mr. Gushing, having thus enjoyed the honor of being the first 
foreigner who ever negotiated with "The Son of Heaven," upon 
equal terms, and having secured for his country an honorable 
standing in the great Celestial Empire, returned home via Mex- 
ico, having made almost a complete circuit of the globe, by land 
and sea, within a belt of forty degrees, in the period of less than 
one year — during which time, also, he had prepared and for- 
warded to the National Institute, at Washington, a highly valu- 
able article on the peculiar geographical and unique physical 
characteristics of Egypt. In 184G he was chosen to represent 
Newburyport in the State Legislature. 

War having been declared against Mexico, Mr. Gushing 
warmly advocated it in the face of a strong opposition by the 



CALEB GUSHING. 309 

people of the State, and whcu an appropriation of $20,000 for 
the equipment of volunteers was refused by the Legislature, he 
advanced the uKjncy himself; was shortly after chosen Colonel 
of the Massachusetts regiment; a few months later (April, 18-1:7) 
was appointed a Brigadier-general, and was in command of the 
Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi volunteer regiments ia 
the front of the line at Buena Vista, under General Taylor. lie 
was afterwards transferred, at his own request, to the army 
under General Scott, under whom he served until the peace. 

While in the service, in 1847, he was the Democratic candi- 
date for the Governorship of Massachusetts, but was defeated, 
and was also one of three officers appointed as a Court of 
Inquiry on Generals Scott, Worth and Billow. On returning 
again to private life, General Gushing was elected (Ibr the sixth 
time) to the State Legislature, as a representative for Newbury port, 
and was the life and soul of that body, actively opj)osing the 
election of Sumner as United States Senator, as well as the coali- 
tion of the democratic and free-soil i)arties. In 1850 and 1851 
he was chosen mayor of the newly incorporated city of New- 
buryport by an almost unanimous vote, and a feature in the city 
charter, probably adopted at his suggestion, was, that the mayor 
should J'cccive no salary. As maycjr he disi)layed the same 
jealous care for the best interests of the municipality which ha 
had done for those of the Union, and was exceedingly popular 
with men of all parties. 

Ilis interest in literary and educational matters never flagged, 
and he was a meml)er of the Board of Overseers of Harvard 
College, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
In 1852 he received the merited compliment of LL.D. from hia 
Alma Mater, and the same year was appointed an Associate 
Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and filled 
the position with his usual marked ability until 1853, when he 
was nominated by Bresident Biercc as United States Attorney 



810 



MEN OF OUR DAY. 



General, from which office he retired in 1857. In this arduous 
position, notwithstanding the great number and complicated 
nature of the novel questions (arising, to a large extent, from the 
expansion of the national domain) submitted for his considera- 
tion, the duties were never more thoroughly and ably performed 
than by him. Ilis opinions, as legal adviser to the cabinet, have 
been published, and though voluminous and covering a far 
wider range of topics than had fallen to the lot of his predecessors 
to decide upon, are in no respect surpassed. 

In 1857, '58 and '59, he again served in the State Legislature. 
In July, 1860, he was president of the Democratic Convention at 
Charleston, South Carolina, and in December of the same year, 
when the occupancy of Fort Sumter by United States troops 
under Major Kobcrt Anderson had deeply intensified the hos- 
tility of the South toward the North, Mr. Gushing was dispatched 
to Charleston by President Buchanan, as a commissioner or con- 
fidential agent of the Executive. His object, so far as its nature 
transpired, was a proffer on the part of Mr. Buchanan designed to 
postpone the inevitable outbreak of hostilities between the Seces- 
sionists and the Federal Government, until the close of his admin- 
istration — then but a few weeks distant. General Cushinsc, who, 
a few months previous, had been in Charleston as a delegute 
(Anti-Douglas) to and president of the Democratic National Con- 
vention, found the "cold shoulder" turned to him, and left the 
city, after a five hours' stay, convinced that the South were 
dreadfully in earnest, and his report was understood to have 
been the theme of a stormy and protracted Cabinet meeting. In 
July, 1866, he was appointed one of three jurists to revise and 
codify the Laws of the United States, a work on which he has 
since been engaged, though not to the exclusion of other duties, 
public and private. His vast legal and general learning, and 
his independence of party trammels, of late years, have made 
him a valuable consellor for the Government in all international 



CALEB CUSHINQ. 311 

questions. He had some share in the construction of the rejected 
Santo Domingo Treaty ; and a large part in the preparation of 
the protocol of the Treaty of Washington as well as in the sub- 
sequent statement of our case, while he was also retained as one 
of the American Counsel before the Commissioners at Geneva. 

Caleb Gushing has always had the reputation of being too 
ambitious ; yet his aspirations seem ever, from youth to mature 
age, to have been inseparably interwoven with his desires 
for the welfare and glory of his country, and his motives are 
well expressed by the following remark from one of those 
defences which have been forced from him, at times, by the 
shafts of malice: "I am yet to be informed what there is culpa- 
ble in a pure and single-hearted ambition, with a willingness, 
when called, to enter the career ot public service,' which the 
republican institutions of our happy country open to all its citi- 
zens, to the low alike with the lofty," And a political opponent 
once said of him, there was " no fear that he would ever use any 
Other than means worthy of his elevated character to push him- 
self" to distinction. Apropos of the expression "push" in this 
connection we may be allowed to quote the good-natured epi- 
gram on General Gushing, from the pen of the late accomplished 
Newburyport poetess. Miss Hannah F. Gould : 

" Jjiiy aside all ye dead, 

For in the next bed 
Reposes the body of dishing; 

IJe has elbowed his way 

'I'hroiigh the world, as they say, 
And, though dead, he still may be pusliing." 

The General's reply to this was as witty as gallant : 

" Here lies one whose wit. 

Without wounding, could hit, 
And green be the turf that's above her; 

Having sent every beau 

To the regions below, 
She has gone down herself, for a lover." 



JOHN ADAMS DIX. 



^OnN ADAMS DIX was born at Boscawen, New TTamp- 
)1 sLire, on the 24tli of July, 1798, and is the son of Timo- 
thy Dix, a lieutenant-colonel of the United States army. 
Sent first, at an early age, to an academy at Salisbury, 
lie was thence transferred to a similar institution at Exeter, 
under the well known Dr. Abbott, where he pursued his studies 
in the companionship of Jared Sparks, John G. Palfrey, the 
Buckminsters and Peabodys, who have since become eminent 
men. In 1811, he was sent to Montreal, in Canada, where he 
continued his studies under the careful direction of the fathers 
of the Sulpician order. In July, 1812, however, the opening of 
hostilities between the United States and Great Britain com- 
pelled his return to his native country, and in December, follow- 
ing, he received an appointment as a cadet in the United States 
army, and was assigned to duty at Baltimore, where his father 
was then stationed on recruiting service. His duties here 
being merely those of an assistant clerk to his father, he diligently 
improved the opportunity which was offered, of continuing 
his studies at St. Mary's college, in that city. He had already 
attained high proficiency in the Spanish, Greek, and Latin 
languages, and in mathematics ; and was esteemed, by those 
who knew him best, as a most highly cultivated and gentle- 
manly young man. In March, 1813, while visiting Washington, 

he was tendered, unsolicited, a choice of a scholarship at West 
312 



JOHN ADAMS DIX. 313 

Point, or an ensign's rank in the army. Selecting tlie latter 
he was commissioned in his father's regiment, the fourteenth 
infantry, and immediately joined his company at Sackett'g 
Harbor, New York, being the youngest officer in the United 
States army ; and was shortly made a third lieutenant of the 
twenty-first infantry. A sad loss shortly after befell the young 
heutenant, in the death of his father, in camp, leaving a widow 
and eight children, besides the subject of our sketch, upon 
whom now devolved the responsibility of saving, for his loved 
ones, something from the estate, which had become seriously 
embarrassed by the colonel's long absence in the service. In 
March, 1814, he was promoted to a second lieutenanoy, and in 
June, 181-4, was transferred to an artillery regiment, commanded 
by Colonel Walback, to whose staff" he was attached and under 
whose guidance he passed several years in perfecting his mili- 
tary education, not forgetting his favorite readings in history 
and the classics. "While in this position, he was made adjutant 
of an independent battalion of nine companies, commanded by 
Major Upham, with which he descended the St. Lawrence, in 
a perilous expedition, which resulted in more severe hardship 
than good fortune. 

In March, 1816, young Dix was appointed first lieutenant ; 
and, in 1819, entered the military family of General Brown as 
an aide-decamp, and began to read law during his leisure 
hours, with a view of leaving the army at an early day. 
During this period he was, in May, 1821, transferred to the 
first artillery; and, in August following, to the third artillery, 
being promoted to a captaincy in the same regiment in 1825. 
His health having become seriously impaired, he obtained a 
leave of absence, and visited Cuba, during the winter of 1825 
-26, and extended his travels in the following summer to 
Europe. Marrying in 1826, he retired from the army, and in 



814 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

December, 1828. was admitted to the bar, and established him- 
self in practice at Cooperstown, New York. Entering warmly, 
iiho, into politics, he became prominent in the Democratio 
paity ; and, in 1830, was appointed, by Governor Tliroop, adju- 
tant-general of the State, in which capacity he rendered effi- 
cient service to the militia of New York. In 1833, he waa 
elected Secretary of State for New York, becoming ex-officio a 
regent of the University, and a member of the board of Public 
Instruction, the Canal board, and a commissioner of the Canal 
fund. By his wise foresight and energy, school libraries were 
introduced into the public and district schools, and the school- 
laws of the State were codified and systematized. 

In 1841 and 1842, he represented Albany county in the New 
York Legislature, taking an active and influential part in the 
most important measures of that period, such as the liquidation 
of the State debt by taxation, and the establishment of single 
Congressional districts. In the fall of 1842, Mr. Dix accom- 
panied his invalid wife abroad, spending that winter and the 
following year in the southern climates of Europe. Return- 
ing to the United States in June, 18-44, he was chosen, in 
January following, to fill the unexpired term in the United 
States Senate, of Hon. Silas Wright, who had recently been 
elected Governor of the State of New York. He took his seat in 
that body, January 27, 1845, and speedily secured a deservedly 
high position among his confreres, being energetic and Indus 
trious to a remarkable degree, and always well prepared for what 
ever question might arise. As chairman of the Committee on 
Commerce, and as a member of the Committee on Military AfTairs, 
he did the country excellent service. He was the author of the 
warehousing system then adopted by Congress, and gave to the 
Canadian debenture law, and the bill for reciprocal trade, much 
of his time and attention. When, during the short sesaion of 



JOHN ADAMS DIX. ' 815 

1845, tlie Santa Fe debenture bill was proposed, he secured an 
amendment including the Canadas, which, together with the 
original bill, was largely indebted to his advocacy for its pas- 
sage. His bill for reciprocal trade with Canada, formed the 
basis for the subsequent reciprocity treaty. He also took great 
interest in army affairs, as well as in the annexation of Texas, 
the war with Mexico, and the Oregon dif&culty ; and firmly main- 
tained the right of Congress to legislate with regard to slavery in 
the Territories. Owing to divisions in the Democratic /)arty, he 
was not re-elected to the Senate ; but ran, unsuccessfully, as the 
nominee of the " Free Soil" wing of that party, for Governor, in 
the fall of 1848. He actively sustained the nomination of 
General Pierce for the presidency, in 1852, and upon that gentle- 
man's accession to office, was tendered the office of Secretary of 
State ; which, owing to the opposition made by the Southern 
Democrats of the Mason and Slidell school, he was induced to 
decline, as also the appointment of minister to France, which 
was subsequently offered him. In 1853, he was made Assistant 
United States Treasurer in New York city ; but, on the appoint- 
ment of John y. Mason to the French embassy, resigned the 
position, and withdrew almost wholly from politics, devoting his 
time, until 1859, to legal practice. At that time, however, he 
was appointed, by President Buchanan, postmaster of New York 
city, vice I. V. Fowler, absconded. 

When, in January, 1861, Messrs. Floyd and Cobb, of the 
first Buchanan cabinet, resigned their positions and fled from 
Washington, the financial embarrassments of the Government 
required the appointment of a Secretary of the Treasury, in 
whose probity, patriotism, and skill the whole country could 
confide. General Dix was called to that high office, and entered 
on its duties, January 15, 1861. The promptness of his measures 



316 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

did as much to reassure the public and save the Government, aa 
the exertions of any other man in "Washington. 

On the IStli of January, 1861, three days after he took charge 
of the Treasury Department, he sent a special agent to New 
Orleans and Mobile, for the purpose of saving the revenue ves- 
sels at those ports, from seizure by the rebels. The most valua- 
ble of these vessels, the Eobert McClelland, was commanded by 
Captain John G. Breshwood, with S, B, Caldwell as his lieu- 
tenant. Breshwood refused to obey the orders of General Dix'a 
agent, Mr. Jones ; and on being informed of this refusal, General 
Dix telegraphed as follows: — '•'• If any man attempts to haul doivn 
the American flag^ shoot him on the spotP'' memorable words, 
which became a watchword throughout the loyal States. 

While a member of Buchanan's cabinet. Major (late General) 
Eobert Anderson made his famous strategical movement from 
Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, which so excited the indignation 
of the (arch-rebel) Secretary Floyd, that he threatened to resign 
if Anderson was not ordered back. General Dix, thereupon, 
promptly notified Mr. Buchanan, that Major Anderson's recall 
would be the signal for the immediate resignation of himself and 
the other members of the Cabinet (Messrs. Stanton and Holt), 
and his firnmess decided the course of the weak-minded execu- 
tive, and Floyd himself left? — none too soon for his own neck, 
or the country's good. 

On the 6th of March, 1861, Mr. Dix retired from the Treasury 
Department, and returned to his home in New York city, where 
he presided, on the 20th of April, over an immense meeting of 
the citizens of the metropolis, convened in Union Square, to take 
measures for the defence of the Constitution and the laws, so 
recently and rudely assailed by the rebel attack upon Fort Sum- 
ter — and he was also chairman of the '" Union Defence Commit- 
tee," organized at that meeting. On the 6th of May, he was 



JOHN ADAMS DIX. 317 

appointed a major-general of volunteers, from New York ; and, 
on the 16tli of the followhig June, he was appointed major- 
general in the regular army, dating from May 16th, 1861, by 
President Lincoln, and placed in command of the department 
of Maryland, his headquarters being at Baltimore. The first 
military movement of the war that was successful, was made 
tinder his command by General Lockwood. The counties of 
Accomac and Northampton, in Virginia, known as the Eastern 
Shore, were occupied by him, the rebels driven out, and the 
mildness and justness of his government restored them as loyal 
counties to the Union, while every other part of Virginia was 
in arms and devastated with war. The command of Maryland 
at that period required a man of the greatest tact, firmness, and 
judgment ; for that reason. General Dix was selected by the 
President. His rule was one of such moderation and justice, 
that his reputation in Baltimore is honored by his most violent 
political opponents. 

In May, 1862, he was transferred to the command of the 
military department of Eastern Virginia, with headquarters at 
Fortress Monroe. This department enjoyed the benefit of his 
services until July, 1863, when he was transferred to the 
Department of the East, with headquarters at New York city. 
To his very prompt action for the prevention of any outbreak 
during the draft of August, 1868, the metropolis was indebted 
for the peaceful manner in which that draft was finally carried 
out. nis subsequent assignments to duty were administrative, 
and attended with no particular incidents of importance, except 
the trial of John Y. Beall and R. C. Kennedy, as spies and con- 
spirators, in February and March, 1865, and their execution. 
At the so-called National Union Convention at Philadelphia, 
August 1-4, 1866, General Dix was temporary chairman. In 
the autumn of 1866 he was nominated, by the President, naval 



818 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

officer of the port of New York, and the same day, United 
States minister to France, in place of Hon. John Bigelow, re- 
signed. After some hesitation, General Dix made his election 
to accept tlie post of minister to France, and having been con- 
firmed by the Senate, arrived in Paris, and was presented to the 
Emperor in January, 1867. He retained this position till March, 
1869, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Washburne. 
Since his return General Dix has remained in private life, and 
in IMarch, 1872, became President of the Erie Eailway, into the 
management of which ho has introduced many needed reforms. 
In the intervals of a very busy life, General Dix has found some 
time for authorship, and his writings are marked by an elegant 
grace and dignity of style, which renders them, when not on 
technical or professional subjects, attractive and readable. This 
is- specially true of his "A Winter in Madeira" (New York, 
1851), and "A Summer in Spain and Florence " (New York, 
1855). Ilis speeches and public addresses were collected in 
two fine volumes in 1865. He has also published "Resources 
of the City of New York" (New York, 1827), and " Decisions 
of the Superintendent of Common Schools of New York," and 
laws relating to common schools (Albany, 1837). 

Though now in his seventy -fourth year, General Dix preserves 
the erect and military bearing of the soldier, and, during the 
late war, was one of the finest looking officers in the army. He 
bears a high reputation for thorough honesty and integrity, and 
his character is irreproachable. If, with increasing years, he 
has, like his former chief, General Scott, a little vanity, it is a 
pardonable weakness, a most venial fault, of which his great 
public services should render us oblivious. 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, 

LATE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO ENGLAND. 



f^yji| HE designation of an author, a statesman, or a diplo- 
matist to what shall prove his life work, is sometimes 

SS^^ most unaccountably delayed. He may be indolent or a 
'^ dilettante, just tasting here and there of literary sweets; 
he may have no fixed purpose in life, and rambling on in this 
aimless way may have reached the noonday of manhood with- 
out finding out what he is fit for, when suddenly there comes 
an impulse which transforms the man, rouses him to a sense of 
his powers and his destiny, and changes him from an elegant 
idler or drone in the busy hive of this work-a-day world, into a 
diligent, earnest student, one of the busiest working-bees in the 
community. And this transformation once begun is not usually 
left unfinished. The later years of the man's life are as bus7 
as his earlier ones were listless and idle. We can all recall 
instances of this sudden and complete transformation ; one of 
the most striking we have ever known is that of the eloquent 
historian whose name we have placed at the head of this 
sketch. 

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, April 15th, 1814, of 
wealthy and highly cultured parentage, John Lothrop Motley 
seems to have had no particular inducement to take life other- 
wise than easily. Trained in the best schools of Boston, and 
entering Harvard College at the early age of thirteen, he gradu- 

319 



320 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ated in 1831, with a fair standing, visited Europe after his 
graduation, spent a year at Gottingen, and another at Berlin, 
but without brilliant results ; travelled in Italy, and in 1834: 
returned to America and studied law. In 1836, he was admitted 
to the bar, and opened an office, but sought no business, and 
business did not come to him. Thus far he had taken life very 
easily, and he seemed inclined to continue to do so. But as a 
man of his opportunities and position must seem to do some- 
thing, he wrote a novel and published it in 1839. Its title was 
" Morton's Hope ; " the Morton of Merry Mount, who so vexed 
the souls of the Pilgrims of Plymouth and Boston. The novel 
had some merit, and showed a leaning toward historical research ; 
but there was no soul in it, and it died at birth. He was sent 
to Eussia as Secretary of Legation in 18-40, but stayed only eight 
months. 

After his return he wrote, in a leisurely fashion, but with a 
somewhat stronger indication of the power that lay slumbering 
within him, several review articles. One of these on " Peter 
the Great," in the North American Review, and two on 
Goethe, and De Tocqueville's " Democracy in America," in the 
New York Review, attracted some attention. In 1849, when 
thirty-five years of age, he produced another novel on a similar 
theme with his first, "Merry Mount, a Romance of the Massa- 
chusetts Colony ; " but, like its predecessor, it attracted little or 
no attention. He was not to acquire fame as a novelist, evi- 
dently. 

About this time, from some cause, his attention was attracted 
to the history of the Netherlands. He procured some books on 
the subject of Dutch History, read up, and trusting to that 
*' fatal facility" which had been one of his earlier gifts, came 
near ruining one of our best historians. He wrote in a hur- 
ried slip-shod way two volumes of Netherland history, and 



JOHN LOTITROP MOTLEY. 321 

thought of publishing it; but the conviction began to force 
itself upon him that the work demanded more thorough and 
profound investigation, and upon making further inquiry, he 
found that it would be necessary to go to Holland for the books 
and manuscripts he needed. 

We have beard it from good authority, that at this period he 
was not familiar with the Dutch language, though he was, of 
course, a proficient in German. In 1851 he embarked for Europe 
with his family, and the next five years were spent in close and 
diligent study in Berlin, Dresden and the Hague. He soon be- 
came dissatisfied with his hastily written volumes, destroyed 
them, and began anew. He now made himself familiar not 
only with the Dutch language, but with its great wealth of his- 
toric literature, and having become thoroughly master of his 
subject, he published, in 1856, a history of "The Rise of the 
Dutch Republic," as fascinating as any romance, through which 
glides, as its hero and statesman, the mystic figure of William 
the Silent, while the Duke of Alva and Philip II. perform the 
part of the villains of the play. The success of this work was 
assured from the day of its publication. It was the very thing 
the reading world had waited for, and both in England and 
America it was largelv in demand. It was translated into Dutch 
by Herr B:ikhuyzen van den Brink, one of the most eminent 
historical writers of Holland; two translations were published 
in German, and one of M. Guizot's family translated it into 
French, Guizot himself writing an introduction. 

Mr. Motley did not return to the United States until 1858, 

and then made but a short visit, being deeply engrossed in 

studies for a further history of the interesting country to which 

he had devoted himself. In 1861 he published two volumes of 

his history of the United Netherlands, and seven years later 

completed two additional volumes. Honors were showered 
21 



322 ilEN OF OUR DAY. 

upon him by European universities and learned societies. He 
was complimented with the degree of D. C. L. hy Oxford Uni- 
versity in 1860, and the same year received the degree of LL. D. 
from Harvard. He was made a member of the Institute of 
France and of most of the societies and orders of merit of 
Great Britain and the Continent. But amid all these honors he 
did not forget his duty to, and his patriotic interest in his own 
country. In 1861, he published in the London Times an elabo- 
rate and forcible essay on the " Causes of the American Civil 
War," and by pen and voice aided the American cause, answer- 
ing the hostile, arousing the indifferent, and doing much to keep 
Germany and Holland in friendly relations to us. In Novem- 
ber, 1866, President Jcjhnson nominated him Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to Austria. He discharged his duties with ability and 
fidelity, and was too loyal to suit the mousing spies whom Presi- 
dent Johnson had set to watch him, and he was recalled 
in 1867. 

After a short visit to the United States, he returned again to 
his historical studies in Europe. In April, 1869, President 
Grant nominated him Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of 
St. James, our highest diplomatic appointment. Here his course 
seems to have been marked by dignity and abilitj'-, but his nego- 
tiations in regard to a treaty with England on the Alabama 
and other questions, as well as some other matters, excited Sec- 
retary Fish's displeasure, and an acrimonious correspondence 
ensued, not wholly creditable to either party, but ending in Mr. 
Motley's recall in November, 1870. Since that time he has 
been on the Continent engaged in historic studies. 

"While Mr. Motley is not the equal of Mr. Bancroft as a philo- 
sophical historian, and does not bring to his work such a wealth 
of learning, or so rich an experience of all the different phases 
of national life, his researches have been very great into the 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTIiEY. 323 

history of the Netherlands, and treating of a homogeneous peo- 
ple, occupying a circumscribed territory, he has had no occa- 
eion for that world-wide culture which has characterized the 
historian of our own country. Whatever he has done has been 
done well, and the best could do no more. 



GEORGE BANCROFT, 

UNITED STATES MINISTER TO THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 




)|l T was long a tradition in literature that historical compo- 
I sition of a high order was only possible in a nation 
which had cultivated literature and political science for 
centuries, and that the historian must devote himself to 
his work alone, abandoning all other pursuits. Experience has 
in the present century abundantly demonstrated the folly of this 
tradition. Among the highest names in English literature are 
the American historians, Irving, Sparks, Prescott, Bancroft, 
Hildreth, Palfrey, Motley, and Kirk ; men of elegant and pro- 
found scholarship it is true, but with the purely American 
habits and modes of thought, and above all, men of affairs ; who 
have in many cases pursued their favorite studies, and composed 
their volumes in the not abundant intervals of engrossing public 
duties. In this last characteristic they have not been singular, 
for Gibbon, Macaulay, and Grote were all members of Parlia- 
ment, and active in other departments of public and private 
life, while Niebuhr and Bunsen found a diplomatic career no 
serious hindrance to historical study ; but none of these emi- 
nent historians of the Old World were so long in public life, 
or occupied such varied public positions as Mr. Bancroft has 
done. 

George Bancroft, Ph. D., LL. D., D. C. L., is the son of 

the late Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D. D., a learned and accomplished 
324 



GEORGE BANCKOFT. 325 

clergyman and author, of "Worcester, Massachusetts, whose 
biography of Washington, published in 1807, was translated 
into most of the languages of Europe, and is still a standard 
authority in our own country. 

Mr. Bancroft was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, October 
3d, 1800. His early education was acquired under his father's 
tuition, but his preparatory studies for college were pursued at 
Phillips' Academy, Exeter, N. H., and he entered Harvard Col- 
ledge in 1813, before he had completed his thirteenth year. He 
graduated with the second honors of his class in 1817, and a 
few months later sailed for Germany to perfect his education. 
He spent two years at Gottingen, years of close and severe 
study in German, French and Italian literature, the Oriental 
languages, the interpretation of the Scriptures, Ecclesiastical and 
Ancient History, the Antiquities, Literature and Philosophy of 
Greece and Rome. At that time Gottingen was the most famous 
universitj^ in Europe for the profound learning of its professors, 
and their skill in imparting knowledge. In 1820, Mr. Bancroft,, 
not yet quite twenty years of age, received the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy from this old and renowned university, and pro- 
ceeded to Berlin, where he became a pupil of Wolf, Schleier- 
macher and Hegel. Here, too, he formed an intimate acquaintance 
with Wilhelm von Humboldt, Savigny, Lappenberg, Varnha- 
gen von Ense, and other eminent German scholars. In 1821 he 
made a tour of Europe, spending some time at Dresden, Jena 
(where he had already become acquainted with Goethe), Heidel- 
berg, where he made the acquaintance of Schlosser, Paris, where 
he became intimate with Oousin, Alexander von Humboldt, 
and Benjamin Constant ; visited England for a month, and then 
passed by way of Switzerland to Italy, forming an acquaintance 
withManzoni, at Milan, and a lifelong intimacy with Bunsenand 
Niebuhr at Rome. 



326 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

He returned to America ia the autumn of 1822, and was 
for a year Greek tutor iu Harvard College. Up to this time 
he had looked forward to the clerical profession, and while tutor 
preached several sermons. But the claims of a literary life seemed 
to him so strong, that he abandoned all idea of the ministry. 
In 1823, he associated himself with Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, 
a scholar of rare attainments, and the two established the 
Eound Hill School, at Northampton, in which some of the 
most learned young men in Germany were employed as teach- 
ers. Its standard of instruction was too high for a preparatory 
school for any college then in existence in the United States, 
and after several years' trial it was finally given up, not, how- 
ever, until it had exerted a powerful influence for good in ele- 
vating the standard of higher instruction throughout the country. 
Mr. Bancroft was then, as always since, a diligent student, and 
aside from his duties as a teacher he translated the " Politics of 
Ancient Greece" of his old preceptor, at Gcittingen, Heeren, 
and published a volume of poems, whose rare beauty and finish 
served to show how brilliant a poet was lost to the world in the 
historian. At this time, too, he commenced collecting the mate- 
rials for his great work, " The History of the United States," 
which nearly fifty years of toil still find not quite completed. 
The first volume of this history appeared in 1834, after ten 
years of study and research. Meantime he had entered to some 
extent on political life, making addresses and drawing up politi- 
cal resolutions and appeals ; but though often tendered office, 
and once without his knowledge elected to the Massachusetts 
Legislature, he uniformly refused to accept or occupy any pub- 
lic position. He was at this time, and for many years after, a 
Democrat of the Jeflfersonian school, and was very much in 
earnest in the advocacy of the doctrines of the party. In 1835, 
he removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he completed 



GEORGE BANCROFT. 327 

about 1838, tlie second volume of his history. la 1838, Presi- 
dent Van Buren appointed him Collector of the Port of Boston, 
and in this position, at that time one of very considerable diffi- 
culty, as the customs were paid in bonds, and the country had 
just passed through the terrible financial panic of 1837, the 
scholarly recluse manifested such skill, intelligence, and vigor 
in the administration of his office as to win the applause even 
of his political opponents. When he entered upon his duties 
there were many thousands of dollars of unpaid bonds, some of 
them lying over for years. When he resigned, in 181:1, every 
bond was paid in full, and his collections amounted to several 
millions. During this time he found leisure to complete the 
third volume of his history. 

In 1844, he was nominated by the Democratic party their 
candidate for Governor of Massaclmsetts, and though during the 
entire canvass he was in New York, studying, for twelve hours 
a day, manuscripts and documents relative to the early history 
of this country, yet he polled a much larger vote than any can- 
didate on a purely Democratic ticket had done before, or than 
any one has since. He was defeated by a very small majority. 
President Polk immediately after his inauguration nominated 
Mr. Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy, and during about a year 
and a half of his service in that office he accomplished a vast 
amount of good for the navy. He founded the Naval Academy 
at Annapolis, procured a grant of the military fort and 
grounds there for its use, arranged its course of instruction, 
selected its professors and instructors, and ordered every mid- 
shipman on shore there. Previously the only instruction of 
naval cadets had been that which they received aboard ship from 
the chaplain, and it was desultory and very imperfect. There 
was no opportunity for competition in scholarship, and there 
was no provision for moral instruction of the young men. 



328 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

He also made great improvements in the Naval Observatory 
at Washington, and some reforms in the mode of promotion in 
the navy. 

He gave the order to take possession of California, and as 
Acting Secretary of War, directed the occupation of Texas by 
General Taylor. In 1846, he resigned his seat in the Cabinet, 
and was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. 
In his three years of diplomatic service he was on the most cor- 
dial terms with the British Government, and with men of letters 
there and on the continent, but he never failed to demand and 
secure for American citizens all the rights and immunities to 
which the citizens of the most favored power were entitled. 
One measure which he carried through there, as he has since 
.„ne in Germany, is worthy of notice. He claimed and secured 
for naturalized citizens of the United States of foreign, birth, 
from their native country, the plenary rights of American citi- 
zens, always and in all places. As it was mainly on this point 
that war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, the impor- 
tance of the concession thus gained will be seen at once. But 
while thus attentive to his diplomatic duties, none of which 
were ever neglected, he was devoting all his leisure to the col- 
lection of material for further volumes of his history. The 
State Paper Office, and all the Kecords of the Treasury, and the 
early colonial papers, were put at his disposal by the British 
Ministry, and he was aided in his researches in Paris by such 
eminent scholars as Guizot, Mignet, Lamartine, and De Tocque- 
ville. 

He returned to the United States in 1819, richly laden with 
historical documents and papers, and taking up his residence in 
New York city, devoted himself assiduously to the preparation 
of the fourth and fifth volumes of his history. These were 
established in 1852. Still continuing his labors (having revised 



GEORGE BANCROFT, 329 

the earlier volumes after his return from England), lie issued 
the sixth volume in 1854, the seventh in 1858, the eighth in 
1863, and the ninth in 1866. Pie is understood to have three more 
volumes nearly ready, completing the work. He is eminently a 
philosophical historian, and brings the wealth of his vast and varied 
learning to bear upon the history of the nation. He has also pub- 
lished an abridgment of the earlier volumes of his history, and 
one or two volumes of miscellanies, comprising several of his 
abler orations and addresses. Mr. Bancroft had been a lifelon^y 
democrat, differing in this particular from most of the eminent 
scholars of our country, who were identified with the Whig 
party while it had an existence, and subsequently drifted very 
naturally into the Eepublican party. There was, there could 
be, no question of the intensity and depth of his convictions in 
regard to the principles of his party. But when the war came, 
Mr. Bancroft, who was, like many otlier eminent Democrats, 
more a patriot than a partisan, at once rallied to the support of 
the Union, gave to it his earnest eftbrts, his eloquence of pen 
and voice, and his most hearty labors. From that time he has 
been identified with the Republican party, though he probably 
recognizes no material change in his views, beyond the subsi- 
dence of the old issues, and the evolution of new ones to which 
he applies his early principles. 

In 1865, he pronounced an eloquent and forcible oration on 
the death of the martyred Lincoln. He was appointed minister 
to Prussia in 1867, and negotiated a treaty with the North Ger- 
man Confederation, and subsequently with the German Empire, 
to which he is now accredited, by wliich German naturalized 
citizens of the United States are wholly released from allegi- 
ance to the government of their native country, and if they re- 
turn to it for a visit, however protracted, are not liable for mili- 
tary service, or any of those burdens which have made it peril- 



330 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ous for tliem to revisit their native land. In Berlin, as every- 
where else, Mr. Bancroft's great attainments, as well as his 
courtly and genial manners, have made him very welcome, and 
no representative of our country who could have been sent thither 
would have been more highly esteemed. A special entertain- 
ment was given by the literary men of Berlin in 1870, in honor 
of the fiftieth anniversary of his receiving the doctorate of 
philosophy, and titles, orders of merit, etc., were conferred on 
him in abundance. When he was Minister to the Court of St. 
James in 1846-9, the University of Oxford, usually chary of 
its honorary degrees to Americans, made him D. C. L. His 
alma mater had conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1843, 
and Union College had done so in 18-41. In 1868 the University 
of Bonn had bestowed upon him the J. U. D. (the German 
equivalent of LL, D.), and Berlin did the same in 1870. 

His life has not been without its troubles and anxieties, its 
strifes born of petty jealousies, its sorrows and its bereavements; 
but it has been, as a whole, a noble, grand life ; one of patriotic 
fidelity to his country and her honor, of strong adherence to 
principle, of manly and generous devotion to the best interests 
of humanity. 



ELIHU BENJAMIN WASHBURNE, 

UNITED STATES MINISTER TO FRANCE. 



^IfLlHU BENJAMIN WASHBUENE, United States 
J^tl^ Minister to France, was born at Livermore, Oxford 
Q[0^ county (now Androscoggin county), Maine, on the 23d 
^^ of September, 1816. Two of his brothers, CadwalLader C, 
and Israel, Jr., have also sat in Congress, the former from "Wis- 
consin, the latter from Maine. Elihu served an apprenticeship 
in the office of the Kennebec Journal ; afterwards studied law at 
Cambridge Law School (Harvard University), and removed to 
Galena, Illinois. He was first elected to the Thirty-third Con- 
gress, from the First Congressional District of Illinois, as a Whig, 
in 1853 ; and he was re-elected to every succeeding one up to the 
Forty-first (1869-71), acting with the Kepublican party from its or- 
ganization, and voting always and persistently on the side of free- 
dom. In the 38th Congress he became the " Father of the House," 
by virtue of having served a longer continuous period than any 
other member. From the Thirty-fifth to the Thirty-ninth Con- 
gress, he was chairman of the Committee on Commerce, and in 
the latter session was a member of the Joint Committee on the 
Library, Chairman of the Special Committee on Immigration, 
and, at the death of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, he became Chair- 
man of the Committee on Appropriations. He was also Chair- 
man of the Special Committees on the Death of President Lin- 

331 



332 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

coin, and the Memphis Eiots; and was on the Committees on 
Rules ; Reconstruction ; Air Line Railroad to New York, etc. ; 
always active, attentive, and practical in council and debate. 
When the war of the rebellion commenced, Mr. Washburne was 
the leading man of his Congressional District, "carrying it in his 
breeches pocket," as the saying is; occupying an elegant man- 
sion, and powerful in political and social influence. At the first 
war meeting held in Galena, for the mustering of volunteers, he 
offered a resolution, and, in fact, engineered the meeting. J. A, 
Rawlins (afterwards Brigadier-General on General Grant's staft' 
and later Secretary of War), also made a speech. Ex-captain 
Ulysses S. Grant was present, unnoticed and taking no active 
part in the proceedings, with evidently no suspicion of the strange 
fate which was to lift him from the obscurity of his father's 
leather store to the Presidential chair. At a second meeting, the 
company was organized and officered, but Grant was not 
thought of. 

A few days after, Mr. Collins (Grant's partner, and a Demo- 
crat) met Mr. Washburne and i-allied him on the selection made 
for captain of Galena's first volunteer company, " when they 
could get such a man as Grant." " What is Grant's history ? " 
was Mr. Washburne's natural inquiry. "Why, he is old man 
Grant's son, was educated at West Point, served in the army for 
eleven years, and came out with the very best reputation." So 
t;he Congressman looked up the quiet leather dealer, Grant, who 
lived in a modest cottage on the top of a bluff, which he could 
only reach, whenever he went to dinner, by a staircase some 
two hundred feet high. The two "struck hands," and Mr. 
Washburne insisted on Grant's accompanying him to Spi'ing- 
field, the Capital of the State. 

Grant had already applied to Ohio, his native State, for a 
chance to serve, and to the Adjutant-General, at Washington, 



ELIHU BENJAMIN WASHBUKNE. 333 

from whom came no response. So they went to Springfield. 
Pope was the hero of the hour ; confusion reigned. Grant got 
employment in Governor Yates' office, and the Governor, after 
a while, discovered his abilities, and gave him the command of 
a regiment. For his next promotion, the future President was 
indebted to the active interest of his friend, Washburne. 

It so happened that President Lincoln had sent to each of the 
Illinois Senators and Representatives, a circular, asking them to 
nominate four Brigadiers. Mr. Washburne pressed Grant's 
claims, on the ground that his section of the State had raised a 
very large number of men for the war, and were entitled to such 
an appointment; his arguments prevailed, and, to his own great 
surprise. Grant was made a Brigadier-General. 

In October, 1861, Mr. Washburne saw Grant at Cairo, Illi- 
nois, and seemed to have become impressed with the idea that 
Grant was "the coming man" of the war. When General 
Pope's friends urged that general's claims for a Major-General's 
stars, Mr. Washburne secured from the President a promise 
that none of the brigadiers then in commission should be pro- 
moted until they had distinguished themselves in the field. 

When Grant's reputation was assailed by reports of intempe- 
rance, etc., Mr. Washburne took no rest until he had sifted the 
evidence, and disproved the charge. The battle of Fort Don- 
elson rendered General Grant, in a large degree, independent 
of Mr. Washburne's friendly offices; but the intimacy and 
friendship of the two men were in no wise weakened, and it was 
Mr. Washburne who had the pleasure of framing the bill by 
which the rank and title of Lieutenant-General, oidy previously 
conferred on General Washington, was created and bestowed 
upon General Grant. 

In 1864-5, he ran for the United States Senatorship against 
Governor Yates, and came very near being successful. Mr. 



334 MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

Wasliburne is bluff, hearty, vigorous in manner, yet not dis- 
courteous. As a speaker he is vehement, brief, plain, practical 
iu the tone of his remarks, and in his deductions ; his style 
possessing no flowery adornment, but rather a " sledge hammer" 
force. He is conspicuous for his persistent opposition to every 
form of political corruption, fighting against every grant, sub- 
sidy and private bill, and endeavoring to defeat every attempt 
at plunder of the public treasury. 

On the accession of President Grant, he appointed Mr. Wash 
burne his Secretary of State, in March, 1869, but he resigned 
about a week later in accordance with a previous arrangement, 
on the plea of ill-health, and accepted the position of Minister 
to France. He remained in Paris during the celebrated siege 
of that city, in 1870-1, renilering much assistance to the 
American residents, and conducting himself in so humane, hon- 
orable and judicious a manner during the trying emergencies 
and complications of that struggle, tliat he reflected honor upon 
the Republic which he represented, and received not only the 
most cordial acknowledgments from the llepublic, at whose 
birth throes he was thus fortuitously pres^ent, but from the Ger- 
man Government also, many of whose citizens, shut up in the 
beleaguered city, he had protected from the hostility of the in- 
furiated National Guard, and as the only representative of a 
first class neutral power, had been their sole resource. 

Mr. Washburne has developed in this position a higher order 
of diplomatic ability than he was generally credited with pos- 
sessing. His whole course has been eminently judicious, and 
creditable alike to himself and the Government he represents. 
The appointment, though made almost entirely on the basis of 
personal friendship, and in some sense as a requital for benefits 
conferred, has proved one of the best which President Grant has 
made 



ROBERT GUMMING SGHENGK, 

UNITED STATES MINISTER NEAR THE COURT OF ST. JAMES. 



\%^7l T lias been for many years the fashion to berate our Gov- 
o I ernment on its diplomatic appointments. Our leading 
ii^ reviews and magazines have frequently indulged in 
^ language something like this: "A diplomatist is not, 
like a poet, born, not made ; to the highest success in diplomacy, 
a life-long training is indispensable. In all the European 
Courts, the young men of the highest ability, who propose to 
make diplomacy tlieir life work, begin as attaches to some 
foreign legation, and proceeding through all the stages of Assis- 
tant-Secretary, Secretary of Legation, Charge, and Minister 
Resident, finally arrive at the high dignity of Ambassador Ex- 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to some court, tho- 
roughly qualified for their work." " With the United States," 
they continue, "there is nothing of this sort attempted. Diplo- 
matic appointments are made without any reference to the 
qualifications of the appointee. Very seldom has he any 
knowledge of the language of the country to which he is sent, 
still less frequently does he know anything of its history, policy 
or customs ; but he has been efiicient in training in, or drivino- 
to the polls, a large number of voters for the Administration 
now in power, and therefore he is to be appointed our represen- 
tative to some country, where he will be a laughing stock and 
disgrace to our nation." 

335 



336 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

There is jast a spice of truth in this statement, so far as some 
few of our appointments of Ministers Resident, Consuls, etc., to 
the minor Powers are concerned. But in the higher appoint- 
ments, such as those to Great Britain, France, Germany (or, 
before the late Franco-German war, to Prussia), Austria, etc., 
whether it was due to our statesmen having a natural talent for 
diplomacy, or to the skill of the Presidents and their Cabinets, 
the fact is palpable that we have been represented at these 
Courts uniformly by men who were the peers of the ablest am- 
bassadors from other Courts. Such men as Mr. Stevenson, Mr. 
Everett, Mr. Dallas, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. C. F. Adams, Mr. Motley, 
or our present representative, General Schenck, at the Court of 
St. James, were, in no respect, the inferiors of the ablest men 
England, France or Germany have sent out as their ambassadors. 
Nor have our Ministers to France or Germany been behind these 
in ability. Gen. Cass, Mr. Rives, J. Y. Mason, Mr. Dayton, 
General Dix, Mr. Bigelow, Mr. Washburne, and in Germany, 
Messrs. J. Q. Adams, Wheatou, Wright, Judd and Bancroft, 
have all done honor to the nation, and they could not have done 
better had they been trained all their lives in '•' the art of using 
language to conceal its true meaning," which was Talleyrand's 
definition of diplomacy. 

The statesman who now represents us near the British Court, 
has the attainments and experience which should qualify him 
for this important post, but his frank, blunt ways, his utter fear- 
lessness, and his incapacity for any of the arts of concealment 
or double-dealing, will introduce a new phase in English diplo- 
macy, though possibly a successful one for him ; since Bismarck, 
one of the most adroit of statesmen and diplomatists, has de- 
clared, "that he had always adopted the plan of telling the 
exact truth and the whole truth, because it puzzled the diplo- 
matists so much." 



ROBERT CUMMINQ SCHENCK. 337 

Robert Gumming Schenck was born in Franklin, Warren 
county, Ohio, October 4, 1809. His ancestry, on his father's 
side, were of Dutch origin, though his father was, we believe, 
born in this country. He served in the War of 1812, and rose, 
like his son, to the rank of General. He died when Robert was 
but twelve years old, and the boy was put under the guardian- 
ship of General James Findley. In 1824, he entered Miami 
University, Oxford, Ohio, a year in advance, and graduated with 
honor in 1827. He studied law with Tom Corwin, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1828, though but nineteen years of age. He 
removed to Dayton, and there, in the next ten years, by diligent 
study and careful preparation of his cases, rose to a command- 
ing position in his profession. He first entered upon political 
life in 1838, by running as a candidate for the State Legislature. 
In the Presidential campaign of 1840, he acquired the reputa- 
tion of being one of the ablest speakers on the Whig side, in. 
the canvass, and, in 1841, was elected a Representative in the 
State Legislature, from Dayton, and became at once a leader of 
his party in the House, After another year in the Legislature,. 
he was elected to Congress from his district in 1843, and re- 
elected in 1845, 1847 and 1849. He declined a re-election in 
1851, and was appointed by President Fillmore, Minister to- 
Brazil, in March. 1851. In Congress, he was eminently efficient 
and practical. He displayed rare abilities and a thorough un- 
derstanding of every subject on which he spoke, and, when oc- 
casion required, was quick of repartee, pungent and satirical. 
His nature was one of great intensity, and he always was so- 
profoundly in earnest in his convictions, that he made warm, 
friends and bitt ;r enemies. As minister to Brazil, he acquitted 
himself with high honor, and was directed by the Government 
to visit Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, and Asuncion, and make 

treaties with the republics around the La Plata and its affluents. 
22 



3oi> MEN OF OUR DAY. 

He obeyed, and negotiated treaties which would have been of 
great advantage to us, but their ratification was neglected by the 
Senate. 

In 1854, Mr. Schenck returned to Ohio, and though sympa- 
thizing generally in the views of the Eepublican party, his per- 
sonal antipathy to Colonel Fremont was so strong, that he took 
no part in the canvass, and, we believe, did not vole. He was 
building up, at this time, a fine and lucrative business in his 
profession, and was also connected as President with one or two 
]:)rominent railroad companies. In 1859, he came into more 
active and direct sympathy with the Republican party, and in 
September of that year, was the first man in the country to 
suggest Abraham Lincoln to a public meeting as a candidate for 
the Presidency. He supported Mr. Lincoln with great ardor 
and warmth at the Chicago Convention, in 1860, and in the 
subsequent canvass of that year. 

When the attack was made on Fort Sumter, Mr. Schenck 
promptly tendered his services to the President, and was com- 
missioned Brigadier-General of Volunteers. As he had not 
been known as a military man, though he had, as afterward 
appeared, been a diligent student of military science, his ene- 
mies, and they were numerous and bitter, determined at once 
that the opportunity of being revenged on him, and of ridiculing 
every movement he might make, was too good to be lost. Many 
of the West Point graduates, full of their importance, sneered at 
political generals, and were very glad of the opportunity to 
sneer at them. In General Schenck's case the opportunity soon 
came, though not through any fault of his, but rather through 
the blundering carelessness of a West Pointer. It was what 
was known for a time, till more important matters drove it out 
of the public mind, as " the Vienna (Va.) affair." In a recon- 
noissance by railroad cars, his troops were fired upon and several 



ROBERT GUMMING SCHENCK. 339 

wounded, and as the plucky General disembarked his soldiers 
and " went for " the enemy, the cowardly engineer ran off with 
the train, and left his little handful of men at the mercy of four 
or five times their number. But thanks to his firmness, the 
enemy believed these troops the advance-guard of a large force, 
and they ran, instead of capturing the Union troops. This 
whole affair, which was, in reality, as General Scott reported, 
highly creditable to General Schenck, except the railroad part, 
which was not his device, but General Daniel Tyler's (a West 
Point officer), was, by his enemies, used greatly to his discredit. 
General Schenck's next appearance was at Bull Run, where 
he stood his ground, though his subordinates, several of them 
graduates of West Point, ran, and afterwards got promoted for 
doing so. He was subsequently in command under Rosecrans, 
in West Virginia, and under Fremont in the Luray Valley, 
and after the battle of Cross Keys was, for a time, commander of 
the First Army Corps, in General Sigel's absence. Ordered to 
join the Army of Virginia, then under General Pope, fighting 
at heavy odds against Lee's large army, he joined it just before 
the second Bull Run battle, and was in the thickest of the fight- 
ing of the two days that followed, being severely wounded on 
the second day, and his right arm permanently injured. He 
was unfit for field duty for six months, but was assigned to the 
command of the Middle Military Department, embracing the 
turbulent Rebels of Maryland, over whom Butler and Banks 
and Dix had held sway. He ruled them with a firm hand, but 
with perfect and exact justice, repressing all turbulence and acts 
tending to the manifestation of disloyalty or any complicity with 
treason. The "woman difficulty," which had troubled Butler 
in Baltimore, and led to his famous order in New Orleans, was 
to be met in Baltimore by General Schenck. He settled it 
effectually and by a very simple but characteristic manoeuvre. 



340 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

The Eebel women of Baltimore were particularly virulent and 
ingenious in their methods of annoying the Union soldiers and 
Union citizens. At last they began to wear the Rebel colors, 
displaying them flauntingly, and taking care to promenade the 
streets in great numbers, thus nrrayed, whenever this display 
would particularly annoy the Union troops and their comman- 
der. General Schenck made no public demonstration, but di- 
rected that a number of the most noted women of the town 
should be selected, and brought to his headquarters for instruc- 
tion. Each was instructed to array herself as elegantly as pos- 
sible, to wear the Rebel colors conspicuously displayed upon her 
bosom, and to spend her time in promenading the most fashionable 
streets of the city. Whenever she met any one of the ladies of 
Baltimore, wearing the same badges, she was to salute her affec- 
tionately as a " Sister in the Iloly Cause." For these services 
she was to be liberally paid. The effect was marvellous. In 
less than a week, not a respectable woman in Baltimore dared to 
show herself in public ornamented by any badge of the re- 
bellion. 

General Schenck was not popular with the disloyal portion 
of the inhabitants of Maryland, His own loyalty was too de- 
cided and earnest to permit him to trifle with them or allow 
them to trifle with him. In December, 1863, he resigned his 
commission to take his seat in Congress, to which he had 
been elected over Mr. Vallandigham, from the Third (Dayton) 
Conp'ressional District of Ohio. He was at once made House 
Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, at that time, 
perhaps, the most laborious Committee of Congress, lie was 
re-elected to the Thirty-Eighth, Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth and 
Forty-First Congresses, and, from his position, was the leader 
of the House. In military matters he was laborious and vigi- 
lant ; the firm friend of the volunteer, as against what he 



ROBERT CUMAHNG SCHEXCK. 341 

thought the encroachments and assumptions of the regulars ; 
the remorseless enemy of deserters ; a vigorous advocate of 
the draft, and the author of the disfranchisement of those 
who ran away from it; the champion of the private soldiers 
and subordinate officers. He cared little or nothing for per- 
sonal popularity, and would fight to the death against any- 
thing which he believed to be wrong, or which covered even the 
slightest suspicion of fraud. He often opposed the Adminis- 
tration, but he was so thorougly honest, so fearless in his ad- 
vocacy of what he believed to be right, and so able in his 
arguments for it, that he almost always carried his point. 
He would have been elected Senator, but that the people of 
Ohio felt that he could not be spared from the House. 
When Mr. Motley was recalled from the ambassadorship to 
Great Britain, President Grant offered the place to General 
Schenck, and, after much hesitation, he accepted it, and 
sailed for England in July, 1871. He has done honor t» 
his position, though he has been placed in circumstances ©f 
great embarrassment and difficulty, in consequence of the 
hitch in regard to the arbitration of the Alabama Claims. 
General Schenck is a ripe and accomplished scholar, tho- 
roughly informed on international and constitutional law, 
well versed in political history, and familiar with the whole 
range of modern literature, English, French and Spanish. 

In person he is about of the middle height, square, compact, 
broad-chested and rugged-featured. His face indicates his 
Dutch ancestry, and quite as strongly his vehement passions and 
his inflexible will. To his enemies he is terrible: the burning, 
stinging eloquence of his invective comes hissing hot from his 
lips and scorches whatever it touches. To his friends he ex- 
hibits an entirely different phase of character, being generous, 
kindly, and affectionate. He can hardly be called ambitious, 
but with all bis foibles, is one of our best and soundest statesmen. 



ANDREW GREGG CURTIN, 

EX-GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



« • » * > 




I'^MONG the loyal governors of the Northern States du- 
\s ring the rebellion, none were placed in circumstances 

^ '' requiring greater watchfulness, or more prompt and de- 
cisive action, than the patriotic Governor of Pennsylva- 
nia, and none fulfilled their high trust with greater fidelity and 
loyalty. 

Andrew Gregg Curtin was the son of Rowland Curtin, 
and was born in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, April 
2d, 1817. The inhabitants of his native county were mostly 
engaged in the manufacture of iron, though agriculture was by 
no means neglected there. The elder Curtin was a noted iron 
manufacturer for forty years, in Centre county, where he accu- 
mulated a large estate, and left his children an ample fortune. 
The mother of Governor Curtin was a daughter of Andrew 
Gregg, of British war fame, a Representative in Congress and 
United States Senate from 1807 to 1813, and one of the sup- 
porters of Jefferson and Madison. 

Young Curtin was educated in Milton, Northumberland 

county, where he was one of the pupils at the academy of the 

Rev. J. Kirkpatrick. After obtainihg a good rudi mental 

education he was placed in the law office and law school of 

Judge Reed, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At this time the school 
342 



ANDREW GREGG CURTm. 843 

formed a portion of Dickinson college, and Judge Reed was 
esteemed the best lawyer in Pennsylvania. 

During the year 1839, Andrew G. Curtin was admitted to 
the bar, and began the practice of his profession in Bellefonte. 
He was very successful, and transacted a large and varied prac- 
tice in the courts of the neighboring counties. Like most lawyers, 
he took a great interest in politics, and attached himself to the 
Whig party of the period. He was actively engaged, during 
1840, in promoting the election of General Harrison as Presi- 
dent of the United States ; and in 1844 stumped the State in 
support of Henry Clay — being always successful in collecting 
an audience on the shortest notice. 

Mr. Curtin was placed on the electoral ticket for 1848, and 
again travelled through his native State, advocating the election 
of General Zachary Taylor. In 1852, he supported the nomi- 
nation of General Scott, was placed on the electoral ticket, and 
worked arduously in his behalf. Indeed, in all his political ac- 
tions, he took the side of what were known as the Pennsylva- 
nia Whigs. 

During the year 1854, Mr. Curtin was very earnestly re- 
quested by the voters of the centre of Pennsylvania to accept 
the nomination for Governor of the State, but refused, receiv- 
ing instead, the chairmanship of the State Central Committee. 
He was afterward appointed, by Governor Pollock, State Secre- 
tary of the Commonwealth. 

Secretary Curtin devoted a great deal of his attention to 
common schools, and to the question of public improvements. 
After his retirement from the State secretaryship, he again de- 
voted himself to the practice of the law, and was very active in 
the extension of railroad facilities through the centre of the 
State. 

Mr. C irtin accepted the nomination for Governor of tho 



844 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

State of Pennsylvania in 1860 ; was elected in October of that 
year, and was formally inaugurated January 15th, 1861. The 
country was then becoming distracted by the first movements 
of the rebellion, and Governor Curtin soon began to make pre- 
parations to support the United States Government. On April 
9th, he sent a message to the State Legislature, recommending 
that measures be immediately adopted to remedy the defects in 
the militia system of the State. The legislative committee re- 
ported a bill for that purpose, and three days after, it became a 
law. 

The excitement attending the fall of Sumter requiring speedy 
legislative action, the recently adjourned Legislature was again 
convened, on April 30th, under Governor Curtin's proclamation 
of April 20th. Volunteers were called for by the United 
States Government, and through Governor Curtin's energy, the 
first regiment that entered the national capital, for its defence, 
was the 25th Pennsylvania volunteers, Colonel Cake. The 
Legislature provided for the raising of a reserve corps, and 
when the three years' volunteers were called for, Pennsylvania 
was ready to send a full division at once into the field. This 
Pennsylvania Reserve Corps did great honor to the State and 
extraordinary service to the nation. General Reynolds, who fell 
on the first day at Gettysburg, was one of its commanders, and 
Major-General Meade, afterward commander of the Army of 
the Potomac, another. 

The territory of Pennsylvania was threatened, and its border 
invaded, in September, 1862, before the battle of Antietara ; but 
the movements of the rebels, in June and July, 1863, when sev- 
eral of its towns were plundered and burned, its capital and it3 
chief city threatened, and one of the bloodiest battles of the war 
fought, for three days, in one of its towns, created great alarm 
among its inhabitants, and it required all Governor Curtin's 



ANDREW GREGG CURTIN. 345 

self-possession, calmness, and executive ability, to re-assure his 
people and organize them for resistance to the invaders. 

His executive powers were again called into exercise in the 
summer of 1864, when the south-eastern part of the State was 
invaded again by the rebels, and great destruction of property 
resulted. Governoi; Curtin was re-elected in 1863, and con- 
tinued in office till January, 1867. After his retirement, he 
was actively engaged in business, but during the political 
campaign of 1867-1868, he did good service for the Republican 
party as a speaker, in New York, New Hampshire and Connec- 
ticut. He was strongly pressed as a candidate for the vice-presi- 
dency at the Chicago Convention, in May, 1868, but the current 
being evidently in favor of Mr. Colfax, he caused his name to 
be withdrawn. 

In 1869, soon after President Grant's inauguration, he was 
appointed United States Minister to the Russian Court, and has 
fulfilled the duties of that important mission with great dignity 
and ixbility. The Catacazy difficulty at one time threatened to 
mar the harmony which had so long existed between the two 
nations, but it was fortunately settled most amicably through the 
admirable management of the American minister. 



DAVID DAVIS. 

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE U. S. 



(VjS^N nothing did Mr. Lincoln show more clearly his faculty 
'^q) ill of insight into human character than in his selection of 
^(m^ men for high official positions. He was sometimes over- 
^ ruled by members of his Cabinet, and men were foisted 
upon him of whose antecedents he had no knowledge ; and occa- 
sionally wearied with the constant worry and strife to which he 
was subjected, he let some men pass, as every President will, 
who were not qualified for their positions. But of the appoint 
ments made by liim from his own personal knowledge, and with 
out extraneous inducncos, it would l)c hard to select one wliich 
was not admirably appropriate. In this class of appointments 
made by him entirely on his own volition, one of the best was 
that of Judge Davis. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, though often a 
Court of Appeals, is one less fettered by precedents than almost 
any other in the world, and its ablest judges have always been, 
not lawyers of the minutest technical knowledge of precedent 
and practice in all the inferior Courts of our own or other coun- 
tries, but men of broad and comprehensive views, well grounded 
in all the great principles on which State, national and interna- 
tional law are based ; men with clear notions of equity, and that 
sound, practical, hard common sense which reaches down at once 
to the fundamental principle involved in a case, and does not 
346 



DAVID DAVIS. 347 

trouble itself with petty technical details. John Marshall, the 
ablest Chief Justice of that court in its whole history, could not 
compare for a moment with any one of a dozen lawyers we might 
name in New York or Philadelphia, in minute, almost micro- 
scopic knowledge of the various motions, countcmotions, 
demurrers, arrests of judgment, and special pleas by which the 
progress of justice might be delayed ; but he was none the less 
an able jurist for all that. His knowledge and his clear brain 
were devoted to the work of expediting justice, not of hindering 
it. Judge Davis is a man of the John Marshall stamp. 

David Davis was born in Cecil county, Maryland, March 9th, 
1815. His family, which was of Welsh origin, removed during 
his childhood to Ohio, and he entered very early Kenyon Col- 
lege, Gambler, Ohio, where he graduated in 1832. Thence he 
went to the Cambridge Law School, and subsequently to the Yale 
College Law School at New Haven, and after a very thorough and 
careful preparation, was admitted to the bar in 1835, when but 
twenty years of age, and settled in Bloomington, Illinois. Busi- 
ness did not come rapidly to the young lawyer, but he studied 
his cases with great care, looking rather to fundamental princi- 
ples than to petty details and technicalities, and gradually both 
courts and people began to find that the Bloomington attorney 
had mastered his cases so thoroughly, that he was sure of defeat- 
ing lawyers whose reputation was higher than his own. At this 
time there was practising in the Circuit Courts of central Illinois, 
a tall, gaunt, but hard-headed lawyer, a half dozen years his 
senior, between whom and Davis there sprang up a strong 
friendship and intimacy. Lincoln (for he it was to whom we 
refer), though powerful before a jury, often deferred to his 
youni^er friend's thorough knowledge of the great princij)les in- 
volved, while Davis in his jury cases availed himself as often 
as he could of his friend's sledge-hammer logic. The two were 



3-18 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

in the State Legislature together, and both, we believe, were 
members of the State Constitutional Convention of 1847 ; thence 
for awhile their paths diverged ; Lincoln plunging into the 
thorny path of politics, and being a member of Congress in 
1847-9; Davis adhering to the law, and being chosen in 1848 
Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, in Illinois, a position 
which he held for fourteen years. Occasionally his old friend 
Lincoln managjed cases in his court, but much of the time he 
Avas occupied with political matters. These had little interest 
for the Judge, who wisely devoted himself to his duties as a 
jurist. Yet he had joined the Republican party in 1856, had 
watched with eagerness the great struggle in 1858, between 
Douglas and Lincoln, his sympathies being wholly with his friend. 
In 1860, he was appointed a delegate to the National Repub- 
lican Convention at Chicago, and labored zealously and heartily 
for Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency. In the autumn of 
]862, there were several vacancies on the Supreme Court bench 
to be filled, and for one of them, Lincoln, unsolicited, named hia 
friend Davis. The appointment was honorable alike to the Presi- 
dent and the Judge; for while the latter was eminently qualified 
for the position, the former by the nomination gratified alike the 
public interests, and his own affectionate disposition. Judge Davis 
entered upon his duties December 8Lh, 1862. His course on the 
Supreme Court bench has commanded universal respect. His deci- 
sions have often been independent, and sometimes diverse from 
those of a part of his associates ; but the reasons assigned for them 
were such as commended themselves to every candid mind. Of 
the reported cases argued during Judge Davis' term (see last 
volume of BlacJc^s, and the eleven succeeding volumes of Wal- 
lace), eighty-n'ght of the opinions of the Court have been deliv- 
ered by him ; while, in nineteen other cases, he has dissented 
from the majority, whose opinion decided the opinion of the 
Court. One who has so long held an important judicial posi- 



DAVID DAVIS. 349 

tion as Judge Davis, and has placed upon record so many opin- 
ions, certainly affords to the public an excellent opportunity of 
forming a correct estimate of his habits of thoughts, in legal 
matters, at least. The greater part of the cases brought before 
the Supreme Court are of such a nature as do not involve con- 
stitutional questions ; but, in those of that kind which he has 
had occasion to adjudicate upon, he has left upon record no un- 
certain indication of his views of the scope of the Federal Con- 
stitution, and the true relations thereto of the several States ; 
and especially in all cases touching the life and personal liberty 
of the citizen. One of the earliest and most important of these 
cases was that of Milligan, in 1866, who having been arrested, 
tried, and sentenced to death by a military commission during 
the recent war, appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided 
boldly and squarely against the overshadowing of civil tribu- 
nals by military authority. 

When Judge Davis came to consider the argument put forth 
by General Butler, in behalf of the Government, that martial law 
covered with its broad mantle the proceedings of this military 
commission, and authorized a military commander to suspend 
all civil rights, and their remedies, and to subject citizens as 
well as soldiers, to the rule of his will, he said : 

"If this position is sound to the extent claimed, then when 
war exists, foreign or domestic, and the country is subdivided 
into military departments for mere convenience, the commander 
of one of them, can, if he chooses, within his limits, on the plea 
of necessity, with the approval of the Executive, substitute 
military force for, and to the exclusion of the laws, and punish 
all persons as he thinks right and proper without fixed or cer 
tain rules. 

" The statement of this proposition shows its importance ; for, 
it true, Republican government is a failure, and there is an end 
of liberty regulated by law. Martial law established on such 
a basis destroys every guarantee of the Constitution, and eff'ectu- 



350 MEN OF OUR DAY, 

ally reiulers tlie ' military iudopeiuleut of, and superior to tlie 
civil pi)\vor,' the attempt to do which by the King of Great 
Britain was doomed by our fathers such an oftence that they 
assigned it to the world as one of the causes which impelled them 
to declare their independence. Civil liberty and this kind of 
martial law cannot endure together; the antagonism is irrecon- 
cilable, and in the conflict one or the other must perish. 

"This nation, as experience has proved, cannot always remain 
at peace, and has no right to expect that it will always have wise 
and humane rulers, sincerely attaehed to the principles of the 
Constitution. Wicked men, amhifion.'^ of power, until hatred of 
liberty and contempt of law, mat/ Jill the place once occuj)ied hj/ 
Washington and Lincoln ; arid if this right is conecdod, and the 
calamities of war again befall us, the dangers to human liberty 
are frightful to contemplate. If our fathers had failed to pro- 
vide for just such a contingency, they would have boon false to 
the trust reposed in them. They knew — the history of the world 
told them — the nation they were founding, be its existence short 
or long, would be involved in war ; how often or how long con- 
tinued, human foresight could not tell, and that unliniitod power, 
wherever lodged at suoh a time, was especially hazardous to 
freemen. For this, and other equally weighty reasons, they 
secured the inheritance they had fought to maintain by incorpo- 
rating in a written Constitution the safeguards which time had 
proved were essential to its preservation. Not one of these 
safeguards can the President, or Congress, or the Judiciary dis- 
turb, except the one concerning the writ of habeas corpus.^^ 

The two similar cases of General Garland, a lawyer, and Mr. 
Cummings, a Roman Catholic priest ; the former debarred from 
practising, and the latter arrested and fined under the action, in 
Missouri, of the " iron-clad " or test-oath, adopted in 1865, in- 
volved the constitutionality of that oath, which was affirmed by 
the opinion of the Court, a minority (including Judge Davis), 
dissenting therefrom. 

In the case of Brennan vs. Ixhodes, 1868, Judge Davis advo- 
cated the uacoastitutiouality of the legal-tender act ; and, in the 



DAVID DAVIS. 351 

Veazie Bank case, of 1869, concerning the constitutionality of 
a ten per cent, tax imposed by Congress (July 15th, 1866) on 
amount of notes issued for circulation by State banks, Judge 
Davis dissented from the opinion of his colleagues on the ground 
that the State of Maine had authority to charter the bank and 
invest it with full banking powers, and that the power of Con 
grass to tax banks was opposed to the right of the State. 

Tn his opinion and action upon these and similar cases, Judge 
Davis has given ample proof of sound judgment, excellent sense, 
and above all, of clearness of thought. Ilis style of expression 
is simple and lucid; his opinions never overloaded with a profu- 
sion of illustrative cases; and his brief, straightforwanl manner 
of giving reasons for a judgment is well illustrated in the 
cases of the Bank of RepnMic vs. Millard (Wallace, 10), and 
Barnard vs. Kello(/g (Wallace, 11), and others. 

At the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, Judge 
Davis was one of the committee who accompanied the remains 
of his lamented friend to their last resting place ; and at the 
urgent request of the bereaved family, was appointed adminis- 
trator upon his estate. 

Of late Judge Davis has become alienated from the President, 
and has been disposed to take sides with the Revenue Reformers 
and other classes hostile to President Grant's administration. He 
was nominated for the Presidency by the National Labor Re- 
form Convention, at Columbus, Ohio, February 22d, 1872, and 
would possibly have received the nomination of the Liberal 
Republicans at Cincinnati, but for the fact that there were two 
or three candidates from Illinois, and the convention preferred 
to select from some State which supported but a single candidate. 

Judge Davis was wise enough to foresee the glowing future of 
Chicago, and to purchase largely of the land on which the city 
ia built, and his shrewd foresight has made him a millionaire. 



CHARLES SUMNER,- 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS. 




" '^^HARLES SUMNER was born in Boston, Massacliusetta, 
on the 6tli of February, 1811. His father, Charles 
<^^^ Pinckney Sumner, a graduate of Harvard College, a 
lawyer by profession, and for fourteen years, during the 
latter part of his life, sheriff of Suffolk county, was a gentle- 
man of eminent probity, literary taste and ability, of whom it 
has been said that " the happiness of mankind was his control- 
ling passion." These graces of disposition, as well as his noble 
and sympathetic character were inherited by his son ; who, at 
an early age, developed uncommon powers of intellect and an 
intense thirst for knowledge. He prepared for college at the 
Boston Latin school, where he manifested a peculiar fondness 
for the classics and for the study of history ; winning at the close 
of his course, the prizes for English composition and Latin 
poetry, besides the Franklin medal. In 1830, Mr. Sumner 
graduated from Harvard college, and in the following year 
entered the law school at Cambridge, where he enjoyed the 
friendship as well as the teachings of that eminent jurist, Judge 
"Story ; pursuing his studies with an indomitable energy and 
assiduity. "He never relied upon text-books," we are told, 
"but sought original sources, read all authorities and references, 
and made himself familiar with books of the common law, from 

the year-books, in uncouth Norman, down to the latest reporta 

352 



i 




F.NORAVEO BY A Ij .WalTRKPHU,* 



V 



CHARLES SUMNER. 353 

It was said that he could go into the law-library, of which he 
was the librarian, and find, iu the dark, any volume, if in ita 
proper place." While a student of law, he becanae an esteemed 
contributor to the " American Jurist," a quarterly journal of 
extensive celebrity and circulation among the profession, of 
which he soon assumed the editorial charge. In 1834, he waa 
admitted to the bar at Worcester, and commenced practice in 
his native city. Being, soon after, appointed reporter to the 
Circuit Court, he publi<shed three volumes, known as "Sumner'a 
Reports ;" and for three successive winters after his admission 
to the bar, lectured to the students of the Cambridge law 
school, in the absence of Professors Greenleaf and Story; 
having, also, for some time, the sole charge of the Dane school. 
These and other labors were performed in such a manner as to 
rapidly advance him to the front rank of his profession, and to 
attract to him the admiration of Chancellor Kent, Judge Story, 
and other distinguished lawyers. In 1833, he edited, with 
a judiciousness and scope of learning which surprised even the 
h:ghest legal authorities, Andrew Dunlap's " Treatise on the 
iractice of the Courts of Admiralty in civil causes of maritirae 
jurisdiction,''^ — his valuable comments forming an appendix 
vrhich contained as much matter as the original work. In 
1837, Mr, Sumner set sail for Europe, with the highest reputa- 
tion as a young lawyer of exalted talent, brilliant genius, and 
commanding eloquence, and bearing with him valuable letters of 
introduction from our highest legal dignitaries to their friends of 
the English bar. " When he reached England, he was received 
with marked distinction by eminent statesmen, lawyers, and 
scholars. During his stay in England, which was nearly a 
year, he closely attended the debates in Parliament, and heard 
all the great speakers of the day, with many of whom he 

became intimately acquainted. His deportment was so gentle- 
23 



854 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

manly, his mind so vigorous and accomplislied, and his address 
so winning, that he became a favorite with many in the best 
circles of English society. The most flattering -attentions were 
shown Mr. Sumner by distinguished members of the English 
bar and bench, and while attending the courts at Westminster 
Ilall, he was frequently inviled by the judges to sit by their 
side at the trials. At the meeting of the British Scientific 
Association, he experienced the same courteous attentions. In 
town and country, he moved freely in circles of society, to 
which intelligence and refinement, wealth and worth, lend 
every charm any grace. Nor did the evidence of such respect 
and confidence pass away with his presence. Two years after his 
return from England, The Quarlerhj Review, alluding to his visit, 
stepped aside to say: "He presents, in his own person, a deci- 
sive proof that an American gentleman, without any official rank 
or wide-spread reputation, by mere dint of courtesy, candor, au 
entire absence of pretension, an appreciating spirit, and a culti- 
vated mind, may be received on a perfect footing of equality 
in the best circles — social, political, and intellectual ; which, be 
it observed, are hopelessly inaccessible to the itinerant note- 
taker, who never gets beyond the outskirts of the show-house." 

Eio^ht years later yet, he received a compliment which, from 
an English bench, is of the rarest occurrence. On an insurance 
question, before the Court of Exchequer, one of the counsel 
having cited an American case. Baron Parke, the ablest of the 
English judges, asked him what book he quoted. He replied 
Sumner's Reports. Baron Rolfe said, "Is that the Mr. Sumner 
who was once in England?" On receiving a reply in the 
affirmative. Baron Parke observed, "We shall not consider it 
entitled to the less attention, because reported by a gentleman 
whom we all knew and respected." Some years ago, some of 
Mr. Sumner's estimates of war expenses were quoted by Mr. 



CHARLES SUMNER. S66 

Cobden, in debate, in the House of Commons. In Paris be 
was received with the same cordiality as in England, and was 
speedily admitted to a. familiar intercourse with the highest 
intellectual classes. He attended the debates of the Chamber 
of Deputies, and the lectures of all the eminent professors in 
different departments, at the Sorbonne, at the College of 
France, and particularly in the law schools. He attended a 
whole term of the Royal Court at Paris, observing the forms 
of procedure; received many kindnesses from the- judges, and 
was allowed to peruse the papers in the cases. While residing 
in Paris, he became intimately acquainted with General Cass, 
the American minister, at whose request he wrote a masterly 
defence of the American claim to the northeastern boundary, 
which was received with much favor by our citizens, and re- 
published in the leading journals of the day. In Italy, Mr. 
Sumner devoted himself, with the greatest ardor, to the study 
of art and literature, and read many of the best works of that 
classic land, on history, politics, and poetry. In Germany, he 
was also received with that high regard v/hich is justly paid 
to distinguished talent and transcendent genius. Here he 
formed an intimate acquaintance with those eminent jurists, 
Savigay, Thibaut, and Alittermaier. He was kindly received 
by Prince Metternich, and became acquainted with most of the 
professors at Heidelberg, and with many other individuals 
distinguished in science and literature, as Humboldt, Eanke, 
Hitter, etc. 

"With his mind thus enriched by travel, and by additional 
stores of varied knowledge, Mr. Sumner returned to his native 
land in 1840, and resumed the practice of his profession. Hia 
principal attention, however, was given to the leisurely study of 
the science and literature of law, rather than to its active prose- 
cution in the professioual arena. In 1843, he again resumed tha 



356 MEN^ OF OUR DAY, 

positioE of lecturer at the Cambridge law soliool, and in 1844-46, 
edited an edition of Vesej's Keports, in twenty volumes — a great 
enterprise, conceived and executed in the happiest spirit — which 
elicited from tlie Boston Law Reporter the truthful estimate of 
Mr. Sumner's abilities, that "in what may be called the litera- 
ture of the law — the curiosities of legal learning — he has no 
rival among us." 

On the 4th of July, 1845, Mr. Sumner delivered an oration 
before the municipal authorities and citizens of Boston on Tlie 
True, Orandeur of Nations, an admirable production, advocating 
the doctrine of universal peace among nations. This oration, 
by its ennobling sentiments, its beautiful imagery, classic allu- 
eions and elegant diction, not only produced a profound impres- 
sion upon those who listened to it, and fully established his 
reputation as an orator, but led to prolonged controversy upon 
the subject of war in general and of the Mexican war in par- 
ticular. 

When the eminent Judge Story died, in 1845, Mr. Sumner 
was universally conceded to be the fittest person to succeed hiin 
in the professorship of the law school. Story himself had fre- 
quently remarked, " I shall die content, so far as my professor- 
ship is concerned, if Charles Sumner is to succeed me ;" while 
Chancellor Kent declared the young man " the only person in 
the country competent "to wear the mantle of his departed 
friend." But Sumner had chosen to enter upon the arena of 
political life ; and, indeed, had already boldl}'- planted there the 
banner, under whose folds he had elected to fight, viz. : the cause 
of human freedom and universal liberty. On the 4th of No- 
vember, 1845, when it was proposed to annex Texas to the 
-Union as a slave State, he had delivered a thrillingly eloquent 
protest, at a public meeting in old Faneuil Hall, against such an 
extension of the slave power. Within the same venerable 



CHARLES SUMNER. 357 

walls, consecrated by so many memories of revolutionary patri- 
otism, he again, on the 23d of September, 1846, addressed the 
Whig State Convention on the Anti-slavery Duties of the Whig 
Party, and, not long after, published a letter of rebuke to Hon. 
Eobert C. Winthrop for his vote in favor of the war with Mex- 
ico. On the 17th of February, 1847, he delivered, before the 
Boston Mercantile Library Association, a brilliant lecture on 
White Slavery in the Barhary States, a production of rare schol- 
arship and research, possessing great interest to every philan- 
thropist and lover of liberty. At Springfield, September 21),. 
1847, he made a powerful speech, before the Massachusetts "Whig 
State Convention, on Political Action Against the Slave Power 
and the Extension of Slavery ; and, at a mass convention at "Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, on the 28th of June, 1848, he gave another 
of his eloquent and able speeches, For Union among Men of all 
Parties against the Slave Power and the Extension of Slavery, in. 
which he forcibly characterized the movement of the day, as a 
revolution, " destined to end only with the overthrow" of the 
tyranny of the slave power of the United States. Mr. Sumner, 
meanwhile, had withdrawn from the "Whig party, and had asso- 
ciated himself with the "Free-soil" party, who favored the claimS' 
of Mr, Van Buren for the presidency in 1848. On the 8d of 
October, 1850, he delivered, before the Free-soil State Conven- 
tion, at Boston, a masterly and glowing speech on Our Recent 
Anti-slavery Duties, which was a most exalted triumph of gen- 
uine oratory, and produced the profoundest impression upon 
those who heard it. It bore with terrible severity upon the' 
Fugitive Slave bill, then recently passed, and upon President. 
Fillmore, who had signed it, of whom he said, " Other Presi- 
dents may be forgotten ; but the name signed to the Fugitive 
Slave bill can never be forgotten. There are depths of infamy, 
as there are heights of fame. I regret to say what I must ; but 



858 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

truth compels me. Better for him had he never been born. 
Bstter far for his memory, and for the good name of his chil- 
dren, had he never been President." 

On the 24th of April, 1851, Mr. Sumner was elected by a 
coalition of the Free-soilers and Democrats in the Massachusetts 
legislature, to occupy the seat in the United States Senate, pre- 
viously occupied by Daniel Webster, who had recently accepted 
a position in Mr. Fillmore's cabinet. He took his seat in the 
national council, fully and firmly pledged to " oppose all sec- 
tionalism^ whether it appear in unconstitutional efforts by the 
North to carry so great a boon as freedom into the Slave 
States, or in unconstitutional efforts by the South, aided by 
northern allies, to carry the sectional evil of slavery into the 
free States ; or in whatsoever efforts it may make to extend the 
sectional domination of slavery over the national Government." 
Soon after his introduction to the Senate, he appeared as the 
able advocate of aid to railroads through the new Western 
States. His first grand effort, however, in the Senate, was his 
speech, on the 26th of August, 1852, on his motion to repeal 
the Fugitive Slave hill, entitled. Freedom National, Slavery Sec- 
tional. He had been for a long time deprived — through the 
action of the pro-slavery members of the Senate, who were de- 
termined to trample upon the freedom of speech on the ques- 
tion of slavery — of the chance of speaking on this question ; 
but when, seizing a parliamentary opportunity, he at length 
gained the floor, he rebuked, in terms of lofty but scathing 
rebuke, the attempt to muzzle public debate ; and, with indig- 
nant eloquence, denounced the Fugitive Slave bill as cruel, 
tyrannical, and unconstitutional. His next great effort was 
his speech before the Senate, February, 21, 1854, entitled. The 
Landmark nf Freedom ; Freedom National; against the repeal of 
the Miss'^uiri prohibition of slavery south of thirty-six degrees 



CHARLES SUMNER. 859 

thirty minutes, in the Kansas and Nebraska bill. Speaking of 
that '* Question of questions, — as far above others as liberty ia 
above the common things of life — which it opens anew for 
judgment," he said, " Sir, the bill which you are now about to pass, 
is at once the worst and the best bill on which Congress has ever acted. 
Yes, sir, Worst and Best at the same time. It is the worst 
bill, inasmuch as it is a present victory of slavery. In a Chris- 
tian land, and in an age of civilization, a time-honored statute 
of freedom is struck down, opening the way to all the countless 
woes and wrongs of human bondage. Among the crimes of 
history, another is about to be recorded, which no tears can 
blot out, and which, in better days, will be read with uni- 
versal shame. Do not start. The tea tax and stamp act, which 
aroused the patriotic rage of our fathers, were virtues by the 
side of your transgression ; nor would it be easy to imagine, at 
this day, any measure which more openly and perversely defied 
every sentiment of justice, humanity, and Christianity. Am I 
not right, then, in calling it the worst bill on which Congress 
ever acted ? 

" But there is another side to which I gladly turn. Sir, it is 
the best bill on which Congress ever acted; /or it annuls all past 
compromises with slavery, and makes all future compromises impossi- 
ble. Thus it puts freedom and slavery face to face, and bids them 
grapple. Who can doubt the result? It opens wide the door 
of the future, when, at last, there will really be a North, and 
the slave power will be broken ; when this wretched despotism 
will cease to dominate over our Government, no longer impress- 
ing itself upon every thing at home and abroad; when the 
national Government shall be divorced in every way from 
slavery ; and, according to the true intention of our fathers, 
freedom shall be established by Congress everywhere, at least 
beyond the local limits of the States. Slavery will then be 



360 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

driven from its usurped footliold here in the District of Colum- 
bia, in the national territories and elsewhere beneath the 
national flag ; the Fugitive Slave bill, as vile as it is unconstitu- 
tional, will become a dead letter ; and the domestic slave trade, 
80 far as it can be reached, but especially on the high seas, will 
be blasted by Congressional prohibition. Everywhere, within 
the sphere of Congress, the great Northern hammer will descend 
to smite the wrong ; and the irresistible cry will break forth ; 
' No more slave States.' 

"Thus, sir, now standing at the very grave of freedom in 
Nebraska and Kansas, I lift myself to the vision of that hap|"y 
resurrection, by which freedom will be secured, not only in 
these territories, but everywhere under the national Goverii- 
ment. More closely than ever before, I now penetrate that 
" All-hail hereafter," when slavery must disappear. Proudly I 
discern the flag of my country, as it ripples in every breeze, at 
last become in reality, as in name, the flag of freedom — 
undoubted, pure, and irresistible. Am I not right, then, in 
calling this bill the best on which Congress ever acted ? 

" Sorrowfully, I bend before the wrong you are about to coia 
mit; joyfully, I welcome all the promises of the future." 

On the 26th and 28th of June, ISS-i, Mr. Sumner, on the 
Boston memorial for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave bill, replied 
to Messrs. Jones of Tennessee, Butler of South Carolina, and 
Mason of Virginia, in eloquent speeches, full of interesting facts, 
and £ne oratory. These were followed, July 81st, by his 
memorable speech on the " struggle for the repeal of the Fugitive 
Slave bill," iii support of a motion for repeal of said bill, the 
introduction of which the Senate finally refused, although, in so 
doing, they overturned two undoubted parliamentary rules. 

After the close of the Congressional session, he addressed the 
Republican State Convention, at Worcester, Massachusetts, on 



CHAKLE3 SUMNER. 361 

the 1st of September, 1854, on tlie duties of Massachusetts at t"he 
•present crisis ; and during the following Congressional session of 
1854-5, he was again found at the front, stoutly battling for 
human rights. When, in February, 1855, Mr. Toucey, of Con- 
necticut, moved his " bill to protect officers and other persona 
acting under the authority of the United States," Mr. Sumner 
to(fk the floor with his masterly speech on the Demands of Free- 
dom—Repeal of tlie Fugitive Slave hill. Again, on the 9th of May, 
1855, in the Metropolitan theatre of New York, he deli vera 1 
a public address on the Anti-slavery Enterprise^, which produced %. 
profound impression upon the community. On the 2d ol' 
November, 1855, he spoke before a public meeting in Faneuil 
Hall, Boston, on the Slave Oligarchy and its Usurpations — thi 
Outrages in Kansas — the Different Political parties — tlie R(pul)Ucan 
party — a concise, forcible and eloquent presentation of the \vf,- 
tory of the great American question. 

On this question, indeed, Mr. Sumner had now become t' o 
recognized leader of the anti-slavery party in the Senal u. 
Favored with a commanding and attractive person, a dignifli'd 
and captivating delivery, a strong and melodious voice, a mil d 
endowed with rare capabilities and still rarer acquired grac ja 
of education, and treasures of knowledge ; and, beyond all, a 
truthfulness of character which gives additional emphasis to 
every word which he utters, Charles Sumner was a repre- 
sentative of whom the Old Bay State had every reason to be 
proud; a champion of freedom, justice, and humanity, whose 
influence and integrity were undoubted. The moment was 
now at hand when the eloquent orator was to become a bleeding 
witness, and well nigh a martyr to that " barbarism of slavery," 
which he had so often denounced with unsparing tongue. 
On the lUth and 20th of May, 1856, during the animated and 
protracted debate on the admission of Kansas as a State of the 



362 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Union, Mr. Sumner delivered in the Senate a speech of sur- 
passing eloquence and power on the Crime against Kansas — the 
Apologies for the Grime — the True Remedy. In the course of this 
speech, which has been well esteemed as "one of the grandest 
efforts of modern oratory — one of the most commanding, irre- 
sistible, and powerful speeches ever made in the Senate of the 
United States," he vindicated, in fervid terms, the fair fame of ^is 
Dative State, and with keen sarcasm, severe invective, and irre- 
sistible argument, traced the course of slavery arrogance and 
domination in Kansas, concluding with the following feeling 
peroration : " In just regard for free labor in that territory, 
which it is sought to blast by unwelcome association with slave- 
labor ; in Christian sympathy with the slave, whom it is pro- 
posed to task and sell there ; in stern condemnation of the crime 
which has been consummated on that beautiful soil ; in rescue 
of fellow-citizens, now subjugated to a tyrannical usurpation; 
in dutiful respect for the early fathers, Avhose inspirations are 
now ignobly thwarted ; in the name of the Constitution, which 
has been outraged — of the laws trampled down — of justice 
banished — of humanity degraded — of peace destroyed — of free- 
dom crushed to earth ; and in the name of the Heavenly Father 
whose service is perfect freedom, I make this last appeal." 
This speech greatly incensed the southern members in Con- 
gress, and was the alleged provocation for the cruel and cowardly 
assault made upon him. 

On Thursday, May 22d, two days after this speech, as Mr. 
Sumner was sitting at his desk in the Senate chamber, busied 
with his correspondence, after the adjournment of the day, he 
was suddenly attacked by Preston S. Brooks, a member of the 
House, from South Carolina, a nephew of Senator Butler, to 
whom Mr. Sumner had replied, who felled him to the floor with a 
heavy cane, with which he continued to belabor his unconscious 



CHARLES SUMNER. 363' 

victim over the bead, while Mr. Keitt, another South Carolina 
Congressman, stood by, with arms in hand, to prevent any 
interference on the part of Mr. Sumner's friends. .The few 
gentlemen who were present in the Senate chamber, were at 
first apparently paralyzed by the scene, but Messrs. Morgan and 
Murray of New York, and Mr. Chittenden, rushed to his aid, 
and finally succeeded in wresting the infuriated scions of 
" chivalry" from the object of their fiendish malevolence ; and 
they were subsequently censured by the House, and resigned 
their seats, both ultimately dying miserable and dishonorable 
deaths. The brutal attack thoroughly aroused the citizens of 
the Northern States to the realization of the true character of 
slavery as manifested in its advocates. Large indignation 
meetings were held in many towns and cities of the land, from 
the east to the west ; and this attempt to stifle freedom of speech 
resulted in a concentration of public sentiment in regard to the 
assumptions of the South, which tended greatly to diffuse and 
promote the spirit of true liberty. 

The injuries inflicted upon Mr. Sumner were of the severest 
character, and resulted in a long continued and alarming 
disability, which obliged him to seek recreation and medical 
advice and treatment in Europe. For more than three years, 
he was a great and constant sufferer, and his final recovery 
was due, under God, to the skill of the eminent French surgeon, 
Dr. Brown-Sequard, and to his own remarkably vigorous and 
healthy constitution. In 1860, having recovered his health, he 
took an active part in the presidential canvass, which resulted 
in the election of Abraham Lincoln. 

During this year, also, he delivered his great oration on the 
" Barbarism of Slavery," the complement of the one for which 
he was so brutally assaulted. 

During the discussions in the Senate, which were finally 



864 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

terminated by the seccession of the Southern States, he earnestly 
opposed all concession and compromise; and was one of the 
earliest advocates of emancipation as a speedy mode of bringing 
the war to an end. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1863, 
and again in 1869, his present term ending March -Itli, 1875. 

At the reorganization of the Senate Committee in ^Marcli, 1861, 
Mr. Sumner was placed at the head of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations, a position for which his great attainments and his 
abilit3''as a statesman eminently qualified him. He continued to 
be chairman of this important committee, rendering conspicuous 
service to the nation, until the assembling of the XLIId Con- 
gress in March, 1871, when, in consequence of his hostility to 
the Santo Domingo Scheme, his denunciation of the course of 
the Government in regard to Hayti, and his aversion to Secre- 
tary Fish, he was, by a majority vote of the Senate, at Secretary 
Fish's prompting, removed from that committee and made 
chairman of the less important one " On Privileges and Elec- 
tions." 

As Mr. Sumner had deemed it his duty to speak in terms of 
considerable severity of some of the measures of the administra- 
tion, though not in general hostile to it, some members of both 
houses of Congress, and especially of the Senate, claiming to be 
the special friends of the President, retorted with gross personal 
abuse of Mr. Sumner, denouncing him as a traitor and denying 
that he had any claims to be regarded as a Republican. Ii might 
have been well for these men, several of whom had themselves 
belonged to the Democratic party till within a short time, to 
compare their own record with that of Mr. Sumner, and they 
might have found that as the founder and father of the Republi- . 
can party, and always true to its great principles amid evil 
report and good report, he might with the utmost propriety 
have read them out of the party, as having only come in when 
oITice and place were to be the rewards of their fealty. 



CHARLES SUMNER. 365 

Mr. Sumner, at lenglh wearied with their constant assaults 

upon him, replied in a speech of considerable length, in which he 

reviewed with the most trenchant severity President Grant's 

' . . . . , 

administration, arraigning it for nepotism, favoritism, and alack 

of perception of the sacredness and dignity of the great trusts 
confided to it. The charges, made with that reiteration and 
variety of indictment which characterize the Senator's speeches, 
and which [)crh;ips he derives from his legal studies, were sup 
ported by a vast array of proofs, and qu<;tations from history. 
In one point of view, ho made out his case, the particulars 
charged were mostly true, but the inference of evil and wicked 
intent was not so clearly demonstrated, and the Senator might be 
justly charged with some degree of malice in his labored indict- 
ment. Several re])lies were attempted, but none of them were 
very satisfactory, even to the speakers themselves. The result will 
undoubtedly be that for some time to come he will be in a mino- 
rity in the Senate, but in his long Senatorial career he has been 
before now declared " outside of any healthy p(;lilical organiza- 
tion," when slavery lifted its lasli and bludgeon against him in the 
Senate chamber; and though the injuries of those wlio have been 
professed friends are harder to bear than the assaults of enemies, 
yet he is too valuable a man in the Senate to be very long "sent 
to Coventry," and meanwhile may console himself as did an 
ancient Roman Statesman : 

"And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels 
'I'huri Ctesar with a Senate at his heels." 

Mr, Sumner is not faultless; a certain imperiousncss of man- 
ner, an over-consciousness of his own really great powers, and 
an intolerance of difference fr(jm him of opinion, are infirmities 
which tli(;se who love him most heartily can but dcj)lore, but 
these when set off against his long faithful and consistent service, 
bis intense patriotism and his broad and comprehensive views 



866 MEN- OF OUR DAY. 

on all subjects of statesmanship, may well be regarded as but 
slight and inconsiderable blemishes in a character otherwise spot- 
less. It is a fact creditable in the highest degree to both men, that 
Mv. Sumner and Mr. Wilson, though differing widely at present 
in their political views, are personally very warm friends, and 
each has the utmost confidence in the integrity and sincerity of 
the other. When Mr. Wilson was nominated for Vice-President 
in June, Mr. Sumner was among the first to congratulate him, 
and would doubtless vote for him could he do so without voting 
for President Grant at the same time. 

Personally Mr. Sumner is a man of fine and commanding 
presence, and of great dignity and courtesy of manner, and out- 
side of the political arena, very popular. In the extent and 
profundity of his culture, in his wide range of knowledge on all 
questions of national and international law, history and political 
economy, and the breadth and comprehensiveness of his views 
as a statesman, Mr. Sumner has few equals and no superior. 




-.ai,^-i;je5«'. 



Kn^kavsc V» a -B VyTAum^ Stetvo 



HENRY WILSON, 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS 




(EOM the lowliest to the loftiest station — from extreme 
1^ penury, the hard grinding poverty which knows the 
bitter experiences of hunger, and insufficient clothing^ 
and wearisome toil, even in childhood, from the early 
dawn far into the hours of night, to the comforts and enjoy- 
ments of refined society, and a position in the highest legisla- 
tive body in the world, the American Senate — these are the 
vicissitudes through which more »-han one of our eminent states- 
men have passed. Senator Wilson is one of those whose lives 
have not been all sunshine, and who have attained their present 
high station only through labor and struggles, v/hich less reso- 
lute, earnest men would have deemed beyond human power and 
endurance. 

Henry Wilson was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, 
February 16th, 1812. His parents were extremely poor : and 
this son they were driven, by their poverty, to bind out to a 
farmer, as an apprentice, when he was but ten years of age. 
The apprenticeship was for eleven years, an age to a boy. It 
would seem, however, that he fell into good hands; for, though 
faring much as other bound-boys do, in regard to the labor of 
the farm, he had his fair share of schooling, and by some appro- 
priation of the hours usually devoted to sleep, and a careful 

307 



868 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

husbanding of those which he could rightfully call his own, he 
had n.\anaged, in those eleven years, to read eagerly and treasure, 
in part at least, in his memory, more than a thousand volumes 
of history, biography, travel, discovery, etc. There was no 
reason to fear that a boy, so ravenously hungry for knowledge, 
would remain through life in a position as humble as that from 
which he sprung. Senator Wilson has none of that miserable 
snobbishness, which leads some men to desire to conceal their 
humble birth. No! he glories rather in being "a son of the 
soil." Witness his reply to that infamous speech of Governor 
Hammond, of South Carolina, in which he characterized work- 
ing men as mudsills, and asserted that, " the hireling manual 
laborers," who lived by daily toil, were " essentially slaves." 
To these taunts, Mr. Wilson replied : 

"Sir, I am a son of a hireling 'manual laborer;' who, with 
the frosts of seventy winters on his brow, ' lives by daily labor.' 
I, too, have ' lived by daily labor.' I, too, have been a ' hire- 
ling manual laborer.' Poverty cast its dark and chilling 
shadow over the home of my childhood; and want was some- 
times there — an unbidden guest. At the age of ten years — to 
aid him who gave me being in keeping the gaunt spectre from 
the hearth of the mother who bore me, — I left the home of my 
boyhood, and went forth to earn my bread by ' daily labor.' " 

A noble, manly avowal, which ought to have won the respect 
of the haughty slavocrat, who was himself not more than two 
generations removed from the " mudsills," whom he contemned. 

When Mr. Wilson was twenty-one years of age, he left New 
Hampshire, and entered a shoe-shop at Natick, Massachusetts, 
to learn the art and mystery of shoemaking. He labored at 
this trade for three years, and, at the end of that time, having, 
as he supposed, earned a sufficient sum to enable him to obtain 
a collegiate education, he returned to New Hampshire, and, in 



HENRY WILSON. 369 

1836, eutered Strafford Academy, to complete his preparation 
for college. 

A few weeks previous to this, however, he had visited the 
national capital, and listened to the exciting debates in the 
Senate chamber and the hall of Eepresentatives. There he had 
seen Pinckney's resolutions, against the reception of anti-slavery 
petitions, receive a majority vote in the house, and Calhoun's 
Incendiary Publication Bill, pass the Senate by the casting vote 
of Vice-President Van Buren. He had visited, too, Williams's 
slave- pen; had seen men and women in chains, put upon the 
auction block, for the crime of possessing " a skin darker than 
his own," and sold to hopeless slavery in the far southwest. 
Shoemakers are proverbially thoughtful men, and this one was 
no exception to the rule. He thought deeply and sadly of the 
horrors and aggressions of slavery, its inhuman cruelties, its 
traffic in the souls and bodies of men, its deliberate trampling 
upon the political as well as social rights of the nation, and 
from that day forth, the settled purpose of his heart was to 
make war upon slavery. That purpose he has never changed. 
His method of conducting the contest may have differed, some- 
times, from those of other prominent anti-slavery leaders ; they 
may have been as good, or better, or worse ; but to one aim 
he has ever been true, the overthrow of the s^ave power. At 
the close of his first term at Strafford academy, at the public 
exhibition, he maintained the affirmative ot the question, 
"Ought Slavery to be abolished in the District of Columbia?" 
in an oration of decided ability. Early the next year, the 
young men of New. Hampshire held an Anti -slavery Conven- 
tion, at Concord, and Mr. Wilson, who was then attending the 
academy at Concord, was a delegate to the convention, and took 
an active part in its deliberations. 

The opportunities of our young shoemaker for attaining a 

24 



370 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

higlier education in academies and colleges were destined to be 
short. The man to whom he had entrusted the hard-earned 
little hoard which was to pay his way through college, became 
insolvent, and the money was wholly lost. Sorrowful, but not 
despondent, he retraced his steps to Natick, and, after teaching 
school for a time, engaged in the shoe manufacturing business, 
and prospered. He continued in this pursuit for several years, 
still employing all his leisure in mental cultivation. In 1840, 
he took an active part in promoting the election of General 
Harrison, making more than sixty speeches, during the cam- 
paign, and proving a very effective political speaker. He was 
elected the same autumn to the house of representatives of the 
State legislature, and re-elected in 1841. In 1844 and 1845, 
he was chosen as State Senator from his district. He took an 
active part in favor of the admission of colored children into 
the public schools, the protection of colored seamen in South 
Carolina, and in opposition to the annexation of Texas. In 
the autumn of 1845, he got up a convention, in the county of 
Middlesex, at which a committee was appointed, which obtained 
more than sixty thousand signatures to petitions against the 
admission of Texas, as a slave State ; and with the poet Whit- 
tier, was appointed a committee to carry the petitions to Wash- 
ing-ton. In 1846, Mr, Wilson was again a member of the House 
of Representatives. lie introduced the resolution, declaring the 
continued opposition of Massachusetts to "the farther extension 
and longer existence of slavery in America," and made an elab- 
orate speech in its favor, which was pronounced by Mr. Garri- 
son in '' The Liberator,'''' to be the most comprehensive and ex- 
haustive speech on slavery ever made in any legislative body 
in the United States. 

Mr. Wilson was a delegate to the Whig' National Convention 
at Philadelphia, in 1848; and on the rejection by the Conven- 



HENr.Y WILSON. 371 

tion of tlie "Wilrnot Proviso, and the nomination of General 
Taylor, he denounced its action, retired from it, returned home, 
and issued an address to the people of his district vindicating 
his action. He purchased " The Boston Republican,^'' the organ 
of the Free-soil party in Massachusetts, and edited it for more 
than two years. 

In 1850, Mr. Wilson was again a member of the Massachu- 
setts House of Eepresentatives, and the candidate of the Free- 
soil members for Speaker. He was the chairman of the State 
Central Free-soil Committee ; was the originator and organizer 
of the celebrated coalition between the Free-soil and Democratic 
parties, which made Mr. Boutwell governor in 1851 and 1852, 
and sent Mr. Rantoul and Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the 
United States. He was a member of the State Senate in 1851 
and 1852, and president »f that body in those years. In 1852, 
he was a delegate to the Free-soil National Convention at Pitts- 
burg ; was made president of the convention, a^d chairman of 
the National Committee. He was the Free-soil candidate for 
Congress in 1852 ; and though his party was in a minority, in 
the district, of nearly eight thousand, he was beaten by only 
ninety-three votes. He was a member of the Massachusetts Con- 
stitutional Convention in 1853, and took a leading part in iis 
deliberations. In 1853 and 1854, Mr. Wilson was the candidate 
of the Free-soil party for Governor of Massachusetts ; and in 
1855 he was elected to the Senate to fill the vacancy occasioned 
by the resignation of Mr. Everett. 

" Time," it is said, " often brings its whirligig of revenges ;" 
but it is seldom the case that one occurs more marked than this. 
The Whig party of Massachusetts was essentially an aristocratic 
party ; its leaders were all men of high culture, of great refine- 
ment, fastidious in the extreme — and though, upon occasion, 
professing great friendship and regard for the working men, 



3T2 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

they were generally very careful to avoid any close contact 
with them. Edward "Rverett, a good, though timid man, an 
elegant scholar, a courteous gentleman, and the associate and 
friend of the titled aristocracy of Great Britain, had repre- 
sented them in the Senate. Mr. Sumner had been his colleague 
for a year or two previous, it is true, and this annoyed thera. 
But Mr. Sumner was an elegant scholar, a man of refinement, 
and of a distinguished family ; so that, notwithstanding his abo- 
litionism, they could endure him. But imagine the horror of 
the Winthrops, the Appletons, the Lawrences, and the rest of 
the cotton lords, on learning that the Natick shoemaker, whom 
they had been disposed to snub when he was a member of their 
party, and whose defection to the ranks of the Free-soilers they 
had regarded as rather a matter of rejoicing than regret, had 
the audacity to be a candidate for the Senatorship which Ed- 
ward Everett had filled ! and, what was worse, was actually 
elected! They denounced, in no measured terms, this disgrace 
to the old and fair fame of Massachusetts. 

But the Natick mechanic, like another mechanic from Wal- 
tham, who was elected to Congress the same year, and who waa 
subsequently the governor of the State, proved to be no boor. 
He was not, probably equal to his predecessor in classic oi 
belles-lettres scholarship, but he had made the most of his 
scanty opportunities of intellectual culture. He was a gentle- 
man in his manners and address, and in thorough mastery 
of all political questions relating to our own government, and 
able, fearless exposition of the principles which lie at the founda- 
tion of all good government, he was the peer of Mr. Everett, 
or any man in the Senate. So fully have the people of Massa- 
chusetts been satisfied of his ability to represent the State, and 
of his industry and faithfulness as a legislator, that they have 



HENRY WILSON. 373 

thrice re-elected liim, for the term of six years, by an almost 
uaaniraous vote of their Legislature. 

In the Senate, from the 10th of February, 1855, the day on 
which he first took his seat, he has been the inflexible and re- 
lentless enemy of slavery, and has done as much, or more, than 
any other man in the nation for its overthrow. In his first 
speech, made a few days after entering the Senate, he announced 
the uncompromising position of himself and his anti-slavery 
friends to be, " We mean, sir, to place in the councils of the 
nation, men who, in the words of Jefferson, ' have sworn, on the 
altar of God, eternal hostility to every kind of oppression over 
the mind and body of man.' " Mr. Wilson was a member of 
the American National Council, held at Philadelphia in 1855, 
and the acknowledged leader of the opponents of slavery. In 
response to a rude menace of one of the southern leaders, who 
left his seat, crossed the room, and, with his hand upon his re- 
volver, took a seat beside him while addressing the conven- 
tion, Mr. Wilson said — " Threats have no terrors for freemen ; I 
am ready to meet argument with argument, scorn with scorn, 
and, if need be, blow with blow. It is time the champions of 
slavery in the South should realize the fact, that the past is 
theirs — the future, ours." Under his lead, the anti-slavery 
delegates issued a protest against the action of the National 
Council, seceded from it, disrupted the organization, and broke 
its power forever. 

When, in the spring of 1'856, Mr. Sumner was assailed in the 
Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, for 
words spoken in debate, Mr. Wilson, on the floor of the Sen- 
ate, characterized that act as "Brutal, murderous, and cow- 
ardly." These words, uttered in the Senate chamber, drew 
forth a challenge from Brooks ; to which Mr. Wilson replied, 
in words which. were enthusiastically applauded by the country, 



374 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

" I Lave always regarded duelling as a lingering relic of bar- 
barous civilization, whicli the law of tlie country has branded 
as a crime. While, therefore, I religiously believe in the right of 
self-defence, in its broadest sense, the law of my country, and 
the matured convictions of my whole life, alike forbid me to 
meet you for the purpose indicated in your letter," This re- 
sponse to the drunken and blood-thirsty bully who had sent 
the challenge, was effectual. He did not desire to prosecute a 
quarrel with a man who " believed in the right of self-defence 
in its broadest sense," and he wisely concluded to let Mr. Wil- 
son alone. For the four or five years that followed, the position 
of Mr. Wilson as one of the acknowledged leaders of the Ee- 
publican party, then a small minority in the Senate, was one 
of great difficulty ; yet he never faltered or flinched. Base 
and outrageous measures, in the interests of slavery, were 
passed by the majority, but never without his earnest protest, 
and his exhausting all possible means of opposition to them. 
The members of that gifllant band of Eepublicans in the Sen- 
ate, knew that they could always confide in the strong common 
sense, the unfailing command of temper, and the ready and 
skilful use of all the resources which his thorough knowledge 
of political tactics, and of parliamentary rules, enabled him to 
command ; and they were content to organize for each contest 
under his direction. 

In the new distribution of committees in the Senate, made 
by Vice-President Hamlin, in March, 1861, Mr. Wilson was 
wisely assigned to the chairmanship of the committee on Mili- 
tary Affairs. For four years previous he had been a member 
of that committee, when Jefferson Davis was its chairman, and, 
though in a minority, had profited by his position in becoming 
thoroughly familiar with all the details of the condition of the 
arms and defences of the country, and the state of the army and 



HENRY WILSON. 375 

its officers. To it he now brought his indomitable energy and 
tireless industry. Its duties were multiplied a hundred fold in 
the four years that followed. 

The important legislation for raising, organizing, and govern- 
ing the armies, originated m that committee, or was passed upon 
by it; and eleven thousand nominations, from the second lieu- 
tenant to the lieutenant-general, were referred to it. The labors 
of Mr. Wilson as chairman of the committee were immense. 
Important legislation affecting the armies, and the thousands of 
nominations, could not but excite the liveliest interest of 
officers and their friends ; and they ever freoly visited him, 
consulted with and wrote to him. Private soldiers, too, ever felt 
at liberty to visit him or write to him concerning their affairs. 
Thousands did so ; and so promptly did he attend to their 
needs, that they christened him the " Soldier's Friend." 

Having been, for twenty-five years, the unflinching foe of 
slavery, and all that belonged or pertained to it, comprehending 
the magnitude of the issues, and fully understanding the charac- 
ter of the secession leaders, Mr. "Wilson believed that the 
conflict, whenever the appeal should be made to arms, would be 
one of gigantic proportions. Being in Washington when Fort 
Sumter fell, he was one among the few who advised that the 
call should be for three hundred thousand instead of seventy- 
five thousand men. On the day that call was made, he induced 
the Secretary of War to double the number of regiments appor- 
tioned to Massachusetts. 

Eeturning to Massachusetts, he met the sixth regiment on its 
"Wfay to the protection of the capital. He had hardly reached 
Boston when the startlinn; intelliorence came that the ret^fiment 
had been fired upon in the streets of Baltimore. Having 
passed that anxious night in the company of his friend General 
Schoiiler, adjutant-general of the commonwealth, discussing 



876 MEN OF OUE DAY. 

the future that darkly loomed up before them, he left the next 
day for Washington. He sailed from New York, on the 21st 
of April, with the forces leaving that day, and found General 
Butler at Annapolis, and communication with the capital closed. 
At the request of General Butler, he returned to New York, 
obtained from General Wool several heavy cannon for the 
protection of Annapolis, and then went to Washington, where 
he remained most of the time, until the meeting of Congress, 
franking letters for the soldiers, working in the hospitals, and 
preparing military measures to be presented when Congress 
should meet on the 4th of July. On the second day of the 
session, Mr. Wilson introduced five bills and a joint resolution. 
The first bill was a measure authorizing the employment of five 
hundred thousand volunteers for three years, to aid in enforc- 
ing the laws ; the second was a measure increasing the regular 
army by the addition of twenty-five thousand men ; the third 
was a measure providing for the " better organization of the 
military establishment," in twenty-five sections, embracing very 
important provisions. These three measures were referred to 
the Military Committee, promptly reported back by Mr. Wilson, 
slightly amended, and enacted into laws. The joint resolution 
to ratify and confirm certain acts of the President for the sup- 
pression of insurrection and rebellion was reported, debated 
at great length, but failed to pass, though its most important 
provisions were, on his motion, incorporated with another 
measure. 

Mr. Wilson, at the called session, introduced a bill in addi- 
tion to the "Act to authorize the Employment of Volunteers," 
which authorized the President to accept five hundred thousand 
more volunteers, and io appoint for the command of the volun- 
teer forces, such number of major and brigadier generals as in 
his judgment might be required ; and this measure was passed. 



HENRY WTLSOISr. 877 

He introduced bills "to authorize the President to appoint 
additional aides-de-camp," containing a provision abolishing _ 
flogging in the army ; " to make appropriations ;" " to provide 
for the purchase of arms, ordnance, and ordnance stores ;" and 
" to increase the corps of engineers ; " all of which were enacted. 
He introduced also a bill, which was passed, " to increase the 
pay of the privates," which raised the pay of the soldiers from 
eleven to thirteen dollars per month and provided that all the 
acts of the President respecting the army and navy should be 
approved, legalized and made valid. Tne journals of the 
Senate, and the " Congressional Globe," bear ample evidence that 
Mr, Wilson's labors at this period were incessant, in originating 
and pressing forward the measures for increasing and organ- 
izing the armies, to meet the varied exigencies of the mighty 
conflict so suddenly forced upon the nation. 

At the close of the session. General Scott emphatically de- 
clared that Senator Wilson had done more work, in that short 
session, than all the chairmen of the military committees had 
done in the last twenty years. Indeed, so highly did the veteran 
general-in-chief prize his labors, that, on the 10th of August, 
1861, he addressed him an autograph letter, thanking him most 
warmly for his able and zealous efforts, and expressing the hope 
that it might be long before the army should lose his valuable 
services in the same capacity. 

A fondness for military studies, and a considerable experience 
in the organization of the militia, in which, before becoming a 
Senator, he had passed through the various official grades up 
to the rank of brigadier-general, added to the very large 
amount of theoretical knowledge acquired in his service on the 
military committee, rendered it desirable that Senator Wilson 
should hold a military command, and accordingly, after the 
adjournment of Congress, General Scott recommended to the 



378 . MEN OF OUR DAT. 

President, the appointment of Senator Wilson to the office 
of brigadier-general of volunteers; but, as the acceptance of 
guch a position would have required the resignation of his seat 
in the Senate, the subject was, after consideration, dropped. 
Anxious, however, to do something for the endangered country 
during the recess of Congress, Mr. Wilson made an arrange- 
ment with General McClellan to go on his staff, as a volunteer 
aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel; but at the pressing 
solicitation of Mr. Cameron, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase, who 
were very anxious to give a new impulse to volunteering, then 
somewhat checked by the defeat at Bull Eun, he accepted 
authority to raise a regiment of infantry, a company of sharp- 
shooters, and a battery of artillery. Eeturning to Massachu- 
setts, he issued a stirring appeal to the young men of the State, 
called and addressed several public meetings, and in forty days 
filled to overflowing the twenty-second regiment, one company 
of sharpshooters, two batteries, and nine companies of the 
twenty-third regiment, in all, numbering nearly two thousand 
three hundred men. He was commissioned colonel of the 
twenty-second regiment, with the distinct understanding that 
he would remain with the regiment but a brief period, and 
would arrange with the War Department, to have an accom- 
plished army officer for its commander. With the twenty- 
second regiment, a company of sharpshooters, and the third 
battery of artillery, he went to Washington, and was assigned 
to General Martindale's brigade, in Fitz John Porter's division, 
stationed at Hall's hill in Virginia, The passage of the regi- 
ment, from their camp at Lynnfield to Washington, was an 
ovation. On Boston Common, a splendid flag was presented 
to the regiment by Robert C. Winthrop; in New York, a flag 
was presented by James T. Brady, and a banquet given by the 
citizens, which was attended by eminent men of all parties. 



HENRY WILSON. 879 

After a brief period, General "Wilson, at tlie solicitation of the 
Secretary of War, resigned his commision, put the accomplished 
Colonel Gove of the regular army in command of his regiment, 
and took the position of volunteer aid, with the rank of 
colonel, on the staff of General McClellan. The Secretary of 
War, in pressing General Wilson to resign his commision 
and take this position, expressed the opinion that it would 
enable him, by practical observation of the condition and actual 
experience of the organization i>f the army, the better to pre- 
pare the proper legislation to give the highest development 
and efficiency to the military forces. He served on General 
McClellan's staff until the 9th of January, 1862, when pressing 
duties in Congress forced him to tender his resignation. In 
accepting it, Adjutant- General Williams said : — 

" The major-general commanding, desires m.e to" acknowledge 
the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, in which you 
tender your resignation of the appointment of aid-de-camp upon 
his staff. The reasons assigned in your letter are such, that the 
general is not permitted any other course than that of directing 
the acceptance of your resignation. He wishes me to add, that 
it is with regret that he sees the termination of the pleasant 
official relations which have existed between you and himself; 
and that he yields with reluctance to the necessity created by 
the pressure upon you of other and more important public 
duties." 

During the second session of the XXXVIlth Congress, Mr. 
Wilson originated, introduced, and carried through, several 
measures of vital importance to the army, and the interests of 
the country. Among these measures, were the bills " relating 
to courts-martial;" " to provide for allotment certificates;" "for 
the better organization of the signal department of the army ;" 
"for the appointment of sutlers in the volunteer service, and 



380 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

defining their duties ;" " authorizing the President to assign the 
command of troops in the same field or department, to officers 
of the same grade, without regard to seniority ;" " to increase 
the efficiency of the medical department of the army ;" " to 
facilitate the discharge of enlisted men for physical disability;" 
"to provide additional medical officers of the volunteer ser- 
vice ;" " to encourage enlistments in the regular army, and 
volunteer forces;" "for the presentation of medals of honor to 
enlisted men of the army and volunteer forces, who have dis- 
tinguished, or who may distinguish themselves in battle during 
the present rebellion ;" " to define the pay and emoluments of 
certain officers of the army, and for other purposes," — a bill of 
twenty-two sections of important provisions; and "to amend the 
act calling forth the militia to execute the laws, suppress insur- 
rection, and repel invasion." This last bill authorized for the 
first time the enrolment in the militia, and the drafting, of 
negroes; and empowered the President to accept, organize, 
and arm colored men for military purposes. Military measures 
introduced by other Senators, or originating in the House, and 
amendments made to Senate bills in the House, were referred 
to the Committee on Military Afi'airs, imposing upon Mr. 
Wilson much care and labor. 

During the session, Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, 
resigned ; and on leaving the department, he said, in a letter to 
Senator Wilson : — " No man, in my opinion, in the whole 
country, has done more to aid the War Department in pre- 
paring the mighty army now under arms, than yourself; and, 
before leaving this city, I think it my duty to offer to you my 
sincere thanks, as its late head. As chairman of the Military 
Committee of the Senate, your services were invaluable. At 
the first call for troops, you came here; and up to the meeting 
of Congress, a period of more than six months, your labors 



HENRY WILSON. 381 

were incessant; sometimes in encouraging the administration 
by assurance of support from Congress, by encouraging volun- 
teering in your own State, by raising a regiment yourself, when 
other men began to fear that compulsory drafts might be neces- 
sary ; and in the Senate, by preparing the bills, and assisting to 
get the necessary appropriations for organizing, clothing, arm- 
ing, and supplying the army, you have been constantly and 
profitably employed in the great cause of putting down this 
unnatural rebellion." 

Mr. Cameron was succeeded by Mr. Stanton, whose rapid 
intuitions, indomitable energy, and wonderful industry, and exe 
cutive ability, were made so manifest in the six years which 
followed, and enabled him to accomplish more than any 
other man could have done for the prosecution of the war. 
That Mr, Stanton's manner was brusque and abrupt, is well 
known, but his relations with Mr. Wilson, which were constant 
throughout the war, were of the most cordial and friendly 
character, and the secretary always found in him a prompt and 
able defender. In tlie last session of the XXXVIIth, and the 
whole of the XXXVII Ith Congress, Mr Wilson labored with 
the same vigor and persistency to organize and develop the 
military resources of the nation, to do justice to the officers, and 
to care for the soldiers. Aside from the numerous bills which, 
though originating with him, were offered by others, and the 
amendments which he suggested to bills originating with other 
Senators, or with the House of Representatives, the following 
important measures were introduced and advocated by him, 
and passed through his efforts: — "An act to facilitate the dis- 
charge of disabled soldiers, and the inspection of convalescent 
camps and hospitals;" "to improve the organization of the 
cavalry forces;" "to authorize an increase in the number of 
major and brigadier-generals ;" " for enrolling and calling out 



382 MEN OF OUR -DAY. 

the national forces, and for other purposes ;" (this act containecl 
thirty-eight sections, and was one of the most important passed 
during the session ;) " to amend an act entitled ' An act for 
enrolling and calling out the national forces;' " (this bill con- 
tained the provision that "colored persons should, on being 
mustered into the service, become free;") "an act to establish a 
uniform system of ambulances in the armies;" "to increase 
the pay of soldiers in the United States army, and for other 
purposes ;" (this increased the pay of a private soldier to sixteen 
dollars a month ;) " to provide for the examination of certain 
officers of the army ;" " to provide for the better organization 
of the Quartermaster's Department ;" " an act in addition to the 
several acts for enrolling and calling out the national forces ;" 
" to incorporate a national military and naval asylum for the 
relief of totally disabled men of the volunteer forces;" "to in- 
corporate the National Freedmen's Saving Bank ;" '' to incorpo- 
rate the National Academy of Sciences;" (the humble shoe- 
maker perfecting and reporting a bill for the organization of 
an association of the most learned and scientific men of the 
nation !) " to encourage enlistments, and promote the efficiency 
of the military and naval forces, to making free the wives and 
children of colored soldiers ;" and a joint resolution " to en- 
courage the employment of disabled and discharged soldiers." 
The important legislation securing to colored soldiers equality 
of pay from the 1st of January, 186-i, and to officers in the field 
an increase in the commutation-price of the ration; and three 
months' extra pay to those who should continue in service to 
the close of the war, was moved by Mr. "Wilson upon appropri- 
ation-bills. 

With the close of the XXXVIIIth Congress, or rather 
shortly after its adjourn mem, came the conclusion of the war. 
But the assembling of the XXXIXth Congress, in the follow- 



HENRY WILSON. 383 

ing December, brought no cessation of labor to Mr Wilson, 
The bill for the continuation of the Freedmen's Bureau, the 
Civil Eights bill, the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment, 
the questions of the basis of representation, negro suffrage, and 
the Eeconstruction acts of that and the XLth Congress, as 
well as the matter of impeachment, all demanded his attention. 
The creation of the rank of general in the army, and admiral in 
the navy, both originated with his committee, and he had the 
satisfaction of seeing Lieutenant-General Grant appointed lo the 
one, and Vice-Admiral Farragut to the other, and the two 
brave and deserving officers, Major-General Sherman, and Rear- 
Admiral Porter, advanced to the vacancies thus made. But 
while laboring, with ever-watchful care, for the interests of the 
army and the support of the Government in its gigantie efforts 
to suppress the rebellion, Mr. "Wilson did not lose sight, for a 
moment, of slavery, to the ultimate extinction of which he had 
consecrated his life more than a quarter of a century before 
slavery revolted against the authority of the nation. In that 
remarkable series of anti-slavery measures which culminated 
in the anti-slavery amendment of the Constitution, he bore no 
undistinguished part. He introduced the bill abolishing slavery 
in the District of Columbia, which became a law on the 16th 
of April, 1862, and by which more than three thousand slaves 
were made forever free, and slavery became forever impossi- 
ble in the nation's capital. He introduced a provision, which 
became a law on the 21st of May, 1862, providing that persons 
of color in the District of Columbia should be subject to the 
same laws to which white persons were subject ; that they 
should be tried for offences against the laws in the same man- 
ner as white persons were tried, and, if convicted, be liable to 
the same penalty, and no other, as would be inflicted upon 
white persons for the same crime. On the 12th of July, 1862. 



384 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

he introduced from the Military Committee the bill, which 
became the law on the 17th, to amend the act of 1795, calling 
for the militia to execute the laws. This bill made negroes a 
part of the militia, authorized the President to receive, into the 
military or naval service, persons of African descent, and made 
free such persons, their mothers, wives, and children, if they 
owed service to any persons who gave aid to the rebellion. 
On the 24th of February, 1864, he caused the enrolment act to 
be so amended as to make colored men, whether free or slave, 
part of the national forces ; and the masters of slaves were to 
receive the bounty when they should free their drafted sluves- 
On the Committee of Conference, Mr. Wilson moved that the 
slave should be made free, not by the act of their masters, but 
by the authority of the Government, the moment they entered 
the service of the United States, and this motion prevailing, 
the act passed in that form. General Palmer reported that in 
Kentucky alone, more than twenty thousand slaves were made 
free by it. He subsequently introduced, and in the face of the 
most persistent opposition carried through, a joint resolution 
making the wives and children of all colored soldiers forever 
free. Six months after the passage of this bill, Major-General 
Palmer reported that, in Kentucky alone, nearly seventy-five 
thousand women and children had received their freedom 
through it. 

Senator Wilson also moved and carried an amendment to the 
army appropriation bill of June 15, 1864, providing that all 
persons of color who had been or who might be mustered into 
the military service should receive the same uniform, clothing, 
arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical attendance, 
and pay, as other soldiers, from the first day of January, 1864. 

His efforts in behalf of the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth Massa- 
chusetts colored regiments are well known, and it was due to 



HENRY WILSON. 385 

his persistency, that they received a part of what was tlieir 
just due. The Freedmen's Bureau bill was originally reported 
by him, and in all the subsequent legislation on that subject, 
lie was active and decided in favor of its organization and 
maintenance. He defended with great ability and secured the 
adoption of negro suffrage as a part of the Congressional plan 
of reconstruction, and in both the XXXIXth and XLth 
Congresses, he has maintained fully his old reputation as the 
champion of the oppressed and down trodden. 

This championship is with him no matter of expediency, i.o 
political trick to gain a cheap popularity. Born in poverty, 
nursed in childhood in the lap of penury, and throughout his 
youth and early manhood accustomed to constant and severe 
manual labor, he has learned, from the stern experiences of hia 
own early life, the divine art of sympathy, and has become 
imbued with the doctrine of human brotherhood and love. A 
man of the people, sprung from the toiling classes, he has pro- 
found faith in them, and commands, as few men can, their earn- 
est and abiding love. 

From boyhood Mr. Wilson has been strictly temperate and a 
man of irreproachable moral character; but within the past six 
or seven years, he has felt the necessity of a more actively reli- 
gious life, and professing conversion, has united himself with 
the Congregational church at his home. In this, as in all other 
public acts of his life, he has given abundant proof of bis 
earnestness and the purity of his motives. lie was, in 1866, 
active in organizing a Congressional Temperance society, an 
association of which there was much need, and has been usinof 
his great influence to win members of Congress, who had fallen 
into habits of intoxication, to reformation. He has met with 
gratifying success in this laudable enterprise. 

Mr. Wilson was a prominent candidate (rather from the 
25 



886 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

urgencv of his friends than from any particular ambition of his 
own) for the Vice- Presidency, in the political campaign of 1868, 
and though Mr. Colfax eventually received the nomination, the 
vote for Mr. Wilson was large, and under other circumstances 
could not have failed to secure him a place on the ticket. 

On the election of General Grant to the Presidency he was 
tendered a position in the Cabinet, but he wisely preferred his 
place in the Senate to which, in 1871, he was re-elected, as being 
one of equal dignity and less liability to censure. In the recent 
discord among the Eepublicans of the Senate, Mr. Wilson has 
supported President Grant, though temperately and with moder- 
ation ; but while he differs in his views from his able and distin- 
guished colleague (Mr. Sumner), their personal relations to each 
other are, as they always have been, cordial and heartily friendly. 

At the National Eepublican Convention held at Philadelphia, 
June 5th and 6th, 1872, Mr. Wilson was nominated for the Yice- 
Presidency on the first ballot, receiving 384| votes against 314J 
polled for Mr. Colfax. This result was due to several causes, of 
which Mr. Wilson's real merit and ability was one ; a declina- 
ture by Mr. Colfax of a reuomination, early in 1871, which was 
subsequently reconsidered, and the belief that after the scathing 
speech of Mr. Sumner, Mr. Wilson's nomination was necessary 
to secure the New England vote for Mr. Grant, were others. But 
whatever may have been the causes which led to it, a good and 
true man has been put in nomination. 



LYMAN TRUMBULL, 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS. 




|HILE the Western States, or ratlier those of the Missib- 
sippi valley, have usually sent men to the Senate who 
were educated to the legal profession, it has generally 
been the case that they were those to whom the law had 
been, for the most part, a stepping-stone to political prefer- 
ment, rather than men profoundly versed in the higher prin- 
ciples of law, men of judicial mind, and those who had for years 
presided with dignity and ability over the highest courts. Illi- 
nois is one of the few exceptions to this general rule. Judge 
Trumbull, one of her Senators, had a wide reputation as a jurist 
for years before he was chosen to a place in the Senate. 

Lyman Trumbull was born in Colchester, Connecticut, Oc- 
tober 12, 1813. He is of an excellent lineage, being from one 
of the collateral branches of a family which has given throe 
governors to Connecticut, one of them the " Brother Jonathan" 
of the Eevolution, and has had its full share of eminent men in 
all departments of public life. Colchester, Mr. Trumbull's 
birthplace, has been, for three-fourths of a century, famous foi 
the excellence of its academy, within whose walls hundreds, if 
not thousands, of distinguished men have received their early 
education. Here Mr, Trumbull acquired his English and classi- 
cal training, and about the year 183-4 went to Georgia, and en- 
gaged in teaching, meanwhile studying law. He was admitted 

387 



388 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

to the bar in Georgia, we believe, in 1836, and soon after re- 
moved to Illinois. A close and eager student of bis profession, 
be soon began to attract notice, and found himself in possession 
of a large and growing practice in the young and thiiving city 
of Chicago. In 1840, he was sent to the State Legislature, and, 
in 1841 and 1842, was elected Secretary of State. But local 
politics were not to his taste, and for the six years following he 
devoted himself with the utmost assiduity to his profession, in 
which his extensive attainments, and the calm, comprehensive 
view which he took of his cases, perceiving and meeting before- 
hand the points which his opponents would make, had given 
him a high rank. In 1848, he was chosen justice of the Su- 
preme Court of Illinois, and presided in that court, with extra- 
ordinary ability, for five years. 

At the election, in November, 1854, Judge Trumbull was 
elected a Representative in Congress from the first Congressional 
district (Cook county) to the XXXIVth Congress. At the 
assembling of the Legislature in the following January, the Re- 
publicans, who were in a majority in both branches of the 
Legislature, were to elect a United States Senator in place of 
General James Shields, whose term expired on the 4th of March 
ensuing. Two candidates seemed to have a nearly equal follow- 
ing, viz. : Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, and Lyman Trum- 
bull, of Chicago. The State had been revolutionized and car- 
ried for the Republican party through Mr. Lincoln's influence ; 
but preferring the triumph of his principles to a personal vic- 
tory, he magnanimously withdrew from the canvass, and brought 
his friends to support Judge Trumbull. The judge took his 
seat in the Senate in December, 1855, and so fully satisfied were 
the people with his conduct, that he was re-elected in 1861, and 
again in 1867. 

Senator Trumbull is of a somewhat cold temperament, and 



LYMAN TRUMBULL. 389 

thougli from conviction a Eepublican, he was conservative in 
his tendencies. In the last session of the XXXVIth Congress 
— December, 1860, to March, 1861 — he opposed secession with 
decision and firmness, yet advocated conciliation ; and though 
he did not believe the Constitution needed amending, he was 
ready to vote for a convention to consider amendments. For- 
tunately for the cause of freedom, and unquestionably controlled 
in this by him who causes " the wrath of man to praise him," 
the southern leaders were not to be coaxed or soothed. They 
were determined on war, believing that through it they should 
obtain the complete ascendancy ; and, as one of them said, they 
would not have staid in the Union if they could have had carte 
blanche to dictate their own terms. 

The temporary weakness which had caused the knees of some 
of the Republicans to smite together, and made them willing to 
accede to what would have been disgraceful compromises, passed 
away, and when the shock came, and war was actually begun, 
they stood shoulder to shoulder, and wondered at their own 
firmness. Mr. Trumbull had never been particularly timid, but 
his whole feelings were averse to war, and he had hoped to pre- 
vent it. Yet when it came, he was firm and true. In the new 
Senate, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, of which 
he had been, from his entrance into the Senate, a member, and 
he acted with judgment and promptness in bringing forward 
such measures as the occasion demanded. On the 24th of July, 
1861, Mr. Trumbull moved, as an amendment to the confisca- 
tion bill, then under consideration, a provision " that whenever 
any person, claiming to be entitled to the service or labor of any 
other person, under the laws of any State, shall employ said 
person in aiding or promoting any insurrection, or in resisting 
the laws of the United States, or shall permit him to be so em- 
ployed, he shall forfeit all right to such service or labor, and the 



^90 MEX OF OUR DAT. 

person whose labor or service is thus claimed, shall be theDce* 
forth discharged therefrom, any law to the contrary notwith- 
standing." This amendment and the confiscation act passed the 
Senate, but was opposed in the Ilouse, and after long discussion, 
a substitute for it, proposed by Mr. Bingham, embodying the 
same principle, but more definite iu its details, was passed. 
When this was returned to the Senate, Mr. Trumbull moved a 
concurrence with the House, and the amended bill was then 
passed. This was, for the time, a bold move on the part of Mr. 
Trumbull, though such has been the progress of opinion since 
that time, that it seems very weak and timid to us. 

As the war progressed, his faith, like that of most of his 
party, in the eventful triumph of universal freedom, grew 
stronger; and, throughout the war, he was found iu the front 
rank, with Sumner and Wilson and Wade and Harlan, in the 
development and advocacy of measures looking to the over- 
throw of slavery, and the protection of the wards of the nation. 
He advocated and defended the Emancipation Proclamation, 
sustained the act suspending the habeas corpus, reported the 
thirteenth amendment to the Constitution in the form in which 
it finally passed, (abolishing slavery throughout the Union,) 
defended the first Freedmen's Bureau bill, and attached to it an 
amendment providing for permanent confiscation of rebel pro- 
perty; drew up, or materially modified, the second and third 
Freedmen's Bureau bills, matured and presented the Civil Eights 
bill, and devoted much labor and time to the perfecting and 
advocacy of the reconstruction acts. 

In the trial of President Johnson, on the articles of impeach- 
ment presented by the House of Representatives, in February, 1868, 
Senator Trumbull, as one of the Grand Inquest of the nation, before 
whom the alleged culprit was to be tried, maintained from the 
first a marked reticence, and though often importuned in regard 
to his future action gave such vague and mysterious responses that 



LYMAN TRUMBULL. 391 

he was claimed by both sides. That the President had been 
guilty of a violation of the spirit of the Constitution and laws, 
very few doubted ; and probably Senator Trumbull was not one of 
the few who had any doubts on this point. But there was more 
difficulty in proving him guilty technically of the letter of the 
law ; and Mr. Trumbull at first, perhaps, undecided on this point, 
at length voted in the President's favor, greatly to the chagrin 
of many of his party associates. That he did this simply on 
legal grounds, and not from any wrong or corrupt motive, was 
patent to every one who knew his purity of character, and his 
uniform integrity and high moral principle. Yet it brought 
down upon him at the time a storm of indignation, which resulted 
in a partial alienation of feeling for years. 

Senator Trumbull supported General Grant's election in 1868, 
but with no great warmth ; and during his administration he has 
maintained generally an independent position. The removal of 
Mr. Sumner from the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations roused his indignation, and since that event he has 
not often acted with the President's friends. In May, 1872, he 
signified his approval of the Cincinnati Convention, and was one 
of the prominent candidates of that convention for the Presi- 
dency ; but the candidacy of Judge Davis, from the same State, 
having rendered the success of an Illinois candidate impossible, 
he gracefully withdrew his name, and has given his support 
most cordially to Messrs. Greeley and Brown. 

Senator Trumbull has the reputation of being cold and want- 
ing in sympathy ; but those who know him best say that under 
a somewhat impassive and frigid exterior there beats a very 
warm and loving heart, one of strong sympathies and passsions. 

He is a man of highly cultivated intellect and a decidedly 
judicial cast of mind. Ilis dignity of manner and his great 
attainments as a jurist eminently fit him for a prominent posi- 
tion in our Jnghest judicial tribunal. 



JOHN SHERMAN. 




'OIIN SHEEMAN, United States Senatoi irom the State 
of Ohio, comes from the distinguished Connecticut 
family of Shermans, which was founded by a refugee 
Koundhead from Essex, England, who brought with 
him to America, the Puritan politics, courage, and conscience, 
which sent him into the field as soldier on the popular side in 
the Civil Wars. The Senator's father, Charles Eobert Sherman, 
a thoroughly educated lawyer, removed from Connect'icut to 
Ohio in 1810, and there became famous first as an advocate, 
and afterwards as a Judge of the Supreme Court. His pro- 
fessional life and judicial service won the success of eminent 
reputation and social regard — his generosity and disinterested- 
ness restricted their profits to the maintenance of his large 
family. When, in 1829, he was stricken upon the bench with 
a mortal disease and died, he left a widow and eleven children, 
the oldest eighteen, the youngest an infant — and he left no 
estate. The boys became somev/hat scattered. William Tecum- 
seh, now General Sherman, became by adoption a member of 
the family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing. John went to Mount 
Vernon, Ohio, where he was sent to school, and kept steadily 
and generally under good masters until he was fourteen years 
old. Then he was sent to the Muskingum Improvement, in part 

to earn his own support, in part to learn the business of a civil 
392 



JOHN SHERMAN. 893 

engineer, and Avas placed under the care of Colonel Curtis, since 
General Samuel E. Curtis, the resident engineer of the work 
The lad's grade in the corps was junior rodman. He was em- 
ployed two years on this work — the two most valuable years of 
his education ; for in them he learned the methods and forms of 
business, acquired a habit of working hard and systematically, 
and became self-reliant. When he was sixteen years old and 
innocent of all politics, save a boy's idea that Tom Corwin and 
Tom Ewing were the greatest men in the world, he became the 
victim of politics, and lost his employment. The Ohio elec- 
tion of 1838 brought the Democratic party into power. The 
pernicious doctrine the leaders of that party had established, 
that "to the victors belong the spoils," was applied to the 
Muskingum Improvement. Colonel Curtis was a Whig. He 
was turned out in the summer of 1839, and most of his boys 
were turned out with him, to give place to a Democratic 
engineer, and to Democratic boys, Sherman was among the 
discharged. He lost little time in weighing the justice which 
punished him for other people's politics, and not his own, but 
after his divorce from his engineering apprenticeship, set 
himself to thinking how he could accomplish the dream and 
ambition of his young life — a college "education. He went to 
his brother, Charles T. Sherman, now United States District 
Judge in Ohio, who was then engaged as a lawyer in Mansfield, 
Ohio. The collegiate education was discussed in domestic 
session of the Ways and Means committee, composed of the two 
brothers, with the family resources all around subject to 
requisition. It could not be accomplished. John hail to give 
up the idea of a college course. Furthermore, he had to earn 
his living. It was finally agreed that the best thing to be done 
was for John to fit himself to be a lawyer as soon as he could, 
and while he was reading law with Charles, and working in his 



894 MEN OF CUR DAY. 

office as a clerk, to go to scliool to his brother in some sense, 
and study mathematics and the Latin classics under his in- 
struction and direction. The attorney's business of the office 
of course ran over this, the boy's substitute for a college edu- 
cation, but amid his drudgery as a clerk, and his reading of 
elementary books of law, he picked up considerable Latin, and 
read miscellaneously, but, largely of English authors. Ilis four 
years' novitiate expired while he was thus liberally educating 
him.self, and he was graduated out of his college by a license to 
practice law, which he obtained on examination the day after 
he was twenty-one years old. He immediately entered into a 
co-partnership with his older brother, which lasted for eleven 
years, and which was active and lucrative for those days and 
the region of Ohio, and in which John earned a solid repu- 
tation as an able, wise, resolute, laborious, honest, and success- 
ful lawyer. John rode the circuits ; Charles managed the busi- 
ness and counselled in the office. 

Like all western lawyers, John Sherman was a politician. 
He was an ultra Whig by organization and education, and of 
course was debarred from office in the Democratic district in 
which he lived. But his talents and character made him the 
representative of the young politicians of the minority party in 
his region, and he had been sent while yet in full practice as a 
lawyer to the Whig National Conventions of 18-18 and 1852, 
and in the latter year was chosen a Presidential elector. Up to 
that time he had never ran for an office, and neither had hoped 
for or desired one. But when the Nebraska issue arose in 
1851, like a true statesman he felt the necessity for combining 
all the opposition in the country to the further extension of 
human slavery, and zealously and laboriously worked to 
organize a new party without a name, whose mission was 
to be to check the aggrandisement of the slave power, and 



JOHN SHERMAN. 395 

preserve the Eepublican principles and forms of our Govern- 
ment. He accepted a norainaton to Congress in the Xllltli 
Ohio district, and greatly to his surprise, in the general 
political revolution of that year, was elected. The law firm of 
Charles and John Sherman was now dissolved. Charles drifted 
into railway enterprises. John was in the current of politics 
which bore him away forever from his profession. He came 
into tlie House of Representatives fully equipped for useful 
public service — a fluent debater, with a large knowledge of 
affairs, patient of details, laborious in investigation, with habits 
of hard work, conciliatory in temper, yet persistent in purpose. 
He brought with him the reputation of being sound in judg- 
ment, sincere in purpose, and superior to personal consider- 
ations in the discharge of a public duty. His career was 
rapidly successful. Its prominent events in the first session of 
the XXXIVth Congress were his service as one of the Kansas 
Investigating Committee, and his preparation of the famous 
Report, which the committee presented to the House of Repre- 
sentatives and tlie people of the country. He bore a large and 
influential part in the debates which followed the report. At 
the close of the session the Republican members of the House, 
chiefly on the persuasion of Mr. Sherman, adopted the amend- 
ment to the Army Bill, denying the validity of the slavery- 
extending laws of Congress. It is almost certain that if the 
Republican party had stood upon that declaration as a plat- 
form, they would have carried the presidential election that 
year. The Republicans in the House agreed to do so, and 
Sherman wrote an address to the people of the United States, 
elaborating the principle contained in that declaration, which 
was signed by all the Republican members, but was not pro- 
mulgated — for Seward and other Senators, under his example 



396 MEN OF OUR BAY. 

aud dissuasion, " backed down," and the Congress adjourned on 
a Democratic triumph. 

The XXXYth Congress was chiefly marked by the long and 
heated contests, over the Lecompton Constitution, the English 
Bill, and the defection of Douglas. In these struggles, John 
Sherman took an active part, and made many and powerful 
speeches. He was also appointed, and served as chairman of 
the N.ival Investigating Committee, which made a most 
damaging exposure of the administrative complicity of Bucha- 
nan and Toucey, with the crimes and purposes of the slavery 
propagandists. He made, too, a masterly speech upon the 
public expenditures, which was widely circulated as a cam- 
paign document. 

The XXXVIth Congress opened in the House, with the mem- 
orable contest for speaker, in which John Sherman was the can- 
didate of the Republicans. On Mr. Pennington's election, he 
was made chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and 
by virtue of that office, the leader of the House of Representatives. 
He crowned his great and varied labors on this Committee, by 
putting through the House the beneficent measure on which, 
more than on any other, the material prosperity of the coun- 
try rests — the so-called Morrill Tariff. In his best speech of 
that Congress, delivered in reply to Pendleton in February 
1861, he was prophetic in his appreciation of the influences that 
divided parties, and the result of the conflict which the South 
was hastening with such arrogant confidence ; he declared that 
war was inevitable, that slavery would be destroyed, that the 
North would triumph. 

Mr. Sherman was elected to the XXXVIIth Congress as a 
member of the House, but on the resignation by Mr. Chase of his 
seat in the United States Senate, was chosen, by the Legislature 
of Ohio, to represent that State in that body. He was put upon 



JOHN SHERMAN. 397 

the Finance Committee, made by the war the most important 
in the organization of the Senate. He introduced the National 
Bank Bill, and had charge of that almost vital measure, as well 
as of the Legal Tender Acts, on the floor and in the debates. 
Among his speeches in this Congress, those which commanded 
general attention, and were of decisive influence, were the one 
against the continuance of the State banking system, delivered 
in January 1863, and the one in favor of the national banks 
soon after. He also spoke powerfully against slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and took part in every important debate 
upon subjects growing out of and connected with the war, and 
always on the right side. But his labors were chiefly confined 
to finance and taxation — to providing money and maintainin{; 
credit to carry on the war. 

In the first session of the XXXIXth Congress Mr. Sherman 
principally devoted himself to the reduction of the ta^es. He 
also introduced into the Senate the bill to fund the public indebt- 
edness, which, if passed as reported, would, as Jay Cooke hag 
borne witness, have been followed by the beneficial results of the 
saving of about $20,000,000 of interest per annum, the wider dis- 
semination of the loan among the masses, and the removal of the 
debt from its present injurious competition with railroad, mer- 
cantile, mining, manufacturing, and all the other vital interests 
of the country. Had the bill been passed as reported, the 
larger portion of the indebtedness of the United States would 
now have been funded into a five per cent, loan, and the 
Treasury and the banks could, in the judgment of the most 
sagacious financiers in the country, have resumed specie pay- 
ments by the 1st of July, 1867. Most unfortunately for the 
public interests, the bill was mutilated in the Senate and 
defeated in the House. Mr. Sherman, in his funding scheme, 
and in the speech with which he supported it, completely antici- 



398 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

pated, and would certainly have avoided tlie perils and qnea- 
tions that now threaten the national credit. In this session 
he also opposed strenuously the bill to contract the currency, 
which has since exercised so mischievous an influence upon 
the business of the country, and the effect of which he clearly 
foresaw and pointed out, both on the floor of the Senate and 
in the committee room. Upon these questions, the funding 
of the public debt, and the contraction of the currency, 
Mr. Sherman differed so much from Mr. Fessenden, who was 
chairman of the Committee on Finance, that subsequent co- 
operation between them became impossible. In the second ses- 
sion of this Congress, Mr. Sherman spoke and labored in favor 
of a revised tariff. A patriotic attempt had been made to 
graduate the duties on foreign goods, so as to equalize tho 
cost of production here and abroad, reference being had to 
the difference between wages, cost of living, and interest on 
money, — a patriotic attempt to secure to American working 
men and women the possession of the American market. Not 
only in the XXXIXth Congress, but in all the Consjresses 
of which he was a member, John Sherman spoke and voted 
for the industr}^ of his country. The nation is indebted to 
him, also, for the substitute for the Keconstruction Bill, which 
he introduced in the second session of the XXXIXth Con- 
gress, and which finally became a law. 

The XLth Congress was principally occupied with Eeconstrue- 
tion and the contest between the legislative and executive 
branches of the Government, which Andrew Johnson forced 
and pushed to an issue whose only solution was his impeach- 
ment and removal from office. Mr. Sherman was chairman of 
the Senate Finance Committee and, by virtue of the pre-eminent 
importance of that post, the leader of the Senate. In the second 
session he reported a new bill for funding the national debt and 



JOHN SHERMAN. 399 

converting the notes of the United States — a measure of the 
greatest consequence. The bill authorized ; 

1. The sale of 10-40 five per cent, bonds to redeem all out- 
standing debts. 

2. It exempted these bonds from State taxation. 

3. It provided for the payment of one per cent, annually of 
the public debt. 

4. It offered to the holders of the 5-20s the option to exchange 
them for 10-40s at par. 

5. It authorized the conversion of legal tenders into bonds, 
and bonds into legal tenders. 

6. It authorized contracts payable in gold. 

The proposed measure was received with favor as being just, 
wise and necessary, by a large portion of the people. It was 
attacked as a violation of the pledged faith of the Government, 
and a step towards repudiation, by a class of capitalists and 
financiers in some of the large cities. Mr. Sherman, in his mas- 
terly speech in support of the bill, delivered on the 27th of 
February 1868, made the following points : 

By reducing the rate of interest from six to five per cent., 
without increasing the volume of greenbacks, we can save to 
the people of the United States seventeen millions of dollars in 
gold annually, and neither derange the currency, disorder the 
money market, nor depreciate our credit : — 

Equity and law will be fully satisfied by the redemption of 
the 5-20 bonds, in the same kind of money received for them, 
and of the same intrinsic value it bore, when the bonds were 
issued : — 

Every citizen of the United States has conformed his busi- 
ness to the law which made greenbacks a legal tender. He has 
collected and paid his debts according to it. And every State 
in the Union, without exception, has, since the legal tender act 



400 MBN OF OUR DAY. 

wag passed, made its contracts in currency and jxiid tlioni in 
currency : — 

The wide discrimination now made between the bondliolder 
and the notehohlcr, gives rise to popuhir clamor and is the 
cause of great and just compkiint : — 

No privilege should be granted to the bondholder that is not 
granted to the noteholder. Both the bond and the note are 
public securities, and both equally appeal to the public faith: — 

No privilege should be given to the bondholder unless it is 
compensated for by some advantage reserved to the Govern- 
ment : — 

The whole public debt should be made to assume such form 
that it may be a part of tlie circulating capital of the country, 
bearing as low a rate of interest as is practicable, and having 
only such exemptions as will maintain it at par with gold :— 

This funding process will give increased value to the United 
States notes — under it both notes and bonds will gradually 
rise, step by step, until they reach the standard of gold — the 
provision indeed is the most rapid way to specie payment. 

Mr. Sherman in this speech also drew from British and 
American history five striking precedents to recommend and 
sanction the measure he had reported from the Finance Com- 
mittee. The rate of interest on portions, or the whole of the 
public debt of England, was reduced by act of Parliament in 
1715 from 6 per cent, to 5 per cent. — in 1725 from 5 per cent, 
to 4 per cent. — in 1749 from 4 per cent, to 3J per cent., and sub- 
sequently, by the same act, to 3; and in 1822 from 5 per cent, 
on exchequer navy bills to a 4 per cent, annuity. Alexander 
Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States, funded, by authority of Congress, the combined public 
debt of the nation and the revolutionary war debts of the 
several Stntes, by offering the fundholders 6 per cent, bonds 



JOHN SHEPwMAN. 401 

for two tliirds of tlieir debt, 3 per cent, bonds for the other 
third, and by giving public lands for some of it, and annuities 
for some. The bondholders and government creditors ■who 
would not accept this offer, got but 4 per cent, interest on the 
debt they held, 2 per cent, less than they were entitled to 
under the law creating the debt. The nation at the time sus- 
tained the arrangement as reasonable, fair, and for the best. 

Mr. Sherman closed his speech on his Funding Bill with these 
noteworthy words: 

" I say the plan now proposed by the Committee on Finance is- 
in accordance with precedents, holds out no threats, deals witii 
all alike, holders of five-twenty bonds, greenbacks, and all. 
It gives them a proposition to fund their debt at their own 
option by the 1st of November next, or if they will not choose 
to do it, then, as a matter of course, the question is to be 
decided at the next session of Congress, what provision ought 
to be made, whether or not Congress will redeem the five-twenty 
bonds in the currency in which they were contracted or post- 
pone its redemption, paying the interest at six per cent, in gold, 
until we can redeem the principal in gold. 

"i/" tins offer is rejected, I will not hesitate to vote to redeem 
maturity bonds in the currency in existence when they were issued 
and with which they were purchased, carefully com] lying, however 
with all the provisions of law as to the mode of payment, and as to 
the amount of currency outstandiny^ 

With the decline in the value of gold in 1868 and subsequent 
years, and the sounder views in regard to our obligations to the 
foreign holders of our national debt which became prevalent 
after the National Conventions of 1868, these plausible but* falla- 
cious theories in regard to its payment in greenbacks, which 
had been a favorite hobby with the Ohio and some other political 
leaders of both parties, were finally abandoned, and we suppose 

that Mr. Sherman himself would hardly cafe to recall at the 
20 ^ 



402 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

present time the earnestness with which he formerly advocated 
them. But except this sliglit, and as it turned out inconse- 
quential, departure from the principles of a high and broad 
statesmanship, there is nothing in Mr. Sherman's record to be 
ashamed of. He has, during his last senatorial term, which 
expires in March, 1873, maintained his old reputation as an effi- 
cient and faithful worker; has materially aided Secretary Bout- 
well in forwarding measures for the funding at lower rates of 
interest the Five-Twenty bonds, and the paying off of the 
National Debt. Ho has taken no active or prominent part in 
the violent and unseemly controversies of the last year, but in 
general supports President Grant. 

John Sherman is very tall, erect, exceedingly spare, brown- 
haired, gray-eyed, has a large head, high and square in front, 
has firm square jaws, a large mouth, with thin lips, expressing 
in an uncommon degree decision, firmness, and self-control, but 
betraying his emotional nature, which is tender and sympathetic. 
He speaks without effort, without hesitation, with great rapidity, 
wholly free from effort at display, and without a single trick of 
oratory or any self conscious mannerism. 

In debate he is greatly animated, and shoots his statements 
and reasoning straight at his mark. He commands the undi- 
vided attention of the Senate when he speaks, and his words 
always carry weight, and generally produce conviction. His 
life is pure ; his personal and political history are without spot 
or blemish. 



CARL SCHURZ, 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM MISSOURI 




^ Jf^l'ARL SCnURZ'S life has been one of action, adventure, 
Vlj ^"^^ romance. Born March 2d, 1829, at Libler, near 
c /'(^^ the city of Cologne, Germany, he pursued a full course 

(s* of studies at the gymnasium of that city, and, in 
1846, became a student of the great University at Bonn, where 
he applied himself with fervor to the study of the ancient clas- 
sics, history, and philosophy. In the political outbreak of 1848, 
he shared in the prevailing agitation, and having become inti- 
mate with Gottfried Kinkel, Professor of Rhetoric in the Uni- 
versity of Bonn, was concerned with him in the publication of 
a paper of ultra-liberal views, and which, during Kinkel's ab- 
sence as a member of the Prussian Legislature, was edited wholly 
by Schurz. In the Spring of 1849, the two friends made ap 
attempt to originate an insurrection in the town of Bonn, but 
failed and were obliged to make their escape, seeking refuge in 
the Palatinate, where a body of the revolutionists had already 
organized. 

Schurz entered the military service as adjutant, and shared in 

the defence of Radstadt. On the conquest of that fortress, he sought 

safety in flight, and concealing himself for three days and nights 

without food, finally escaped through a sewer, made his way 

across the Rhine, and succeeded in reaching Switzerland about 

the beginning of August, 1849, remaining in seclusion at Zurich 

403 



404 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

until the following May. His friend, Kinkel, meanwhile, had 
been captured, tried, condemned to a twenty years' imprison- 
ment, and incarcerated in the fortress of Spandau. Schurz con- 
ceived the bold idea of releasing him from durance vile, and 
after a long correspondence with Kinkcl's wife, secretly returned 
to Germany, at great I'isk to liimself, and spent much time at 
Cologne, and three months at Berlin, engaged in unremitting 
attempts to establish friendly relations with the guards and 
others who were brought in contact with the prisoner. The 
actual attempt at rescue was made November 6th, 1850, when 
Kinkel's cell was broken open, he was brought out to the roof, 
and from thence lowered to the ground, and spirited away. 

The boldness of the scheme was its success; altliough the 
Government, with little probability, was thought to have winked 
at it. The fugitives found their way across the frontier to 
Mecklenburg, thence to Rostock, where, after some time spent in 
concealment, they took passage on a small schooner, in Decem- 
ber, to Leith. Schurz then established himself in Paris, finding 
employment as correspondent of some of the German newspa- 
pers, until June, 1851, when he removed to London, and pur- 
sued the vocation of a teacher until July, 1852. In that year, 
having married, he came to America, remaining for some three 
years in Philadelphia, during which time he devoted his atten- 
tion largely to political, historical and legal studies, then, after a 
short visit to Europe, he settled in the practice of the law at 
Madison, Wisconsin. As might have been expected, from the 
natural bias of his mind, and the associations of his earlier years, 
he found in American politics a congenial field for the exercise 
of his talents, and in the Presidential canvass of 1856, he became 
famous in the Western country as an orator among the Ger- 
mans, wielding among them a very powerful influence, in behalf 
of Republican principles. In 1857, he was nominated by the 



CARL SCHUPwZ, 405 

State Republican Convention as Lieutenant-Governor of the 
State, but was defeated at the polls. In 1858, on the occasion of 
the contest between Douglas and Lincoln, for the United States 
Senatorship of Illinois, he delivered his first public speech in 
English, which was widely republished in the newspapers of 
the land. He developed abilities of a high order, as a politician 
and orator, and his speech on "Americanism," at Faneuil Hall, 
as also at the Jefferson celebration at Boston, in the spring of 
1859, added largely to liis reputation. Meanwhile, he had taken 
up his residence at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was engaged in 
legal practice. During the winter of 1859-60, he was in demand 
as a lyceum lecturer in New England ; and his speech on " Sena- 
tor Douglas' Ideas and Policy," delivered in Springfield, Massa 
chusetts, attracted much attention. In 1860, he was a Delegate 
to the Republican National Convention, in which he swayed 
great influence, especially in the framing of that portion of the 
platform which related to citizens of foreign birth. During the 
Presidential canvass which followed, he led a life of ceaseless 
activity, haranguing the people in the Northern States, both in 
the German and English languages; his principal speeches, as 
rated by their eloquence and popular effect, being that delivered 
at St. Louis, on "The Irrepressible Confliet," and one entitled 
'' The Indictment Against Douglas," spoken in New York 
city. 

There is no doubt that Mr. Schurz's efforts contributed very 
largely to the success of the Republican ticket, and his servicea 
were appropriately acknowledged in his appointment as Minister 
to Spain, by President Lincoln, shortly after his inauguration. 
But the outbreak of the war, at this juncture, led him to resign 
the appointment in order to take a share in the military service 
of his adopted country. Circumstances, however, seemed to 
overrule his wishes, and he went to Madrid, where he represented 



406 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the United States until December, 1861. Immediately upon his 
return from abroad he threw himself with characteristic energy 
into the work of aiding the Government; and, among other 
notable efforts, delivered, at New York, March 6th, 1862, a 
speech on " The Necessity of Abolishing Slavery, as a Means 
of Eestoring the National Unity," which struck the key-note of 
the future action of the Lincoln Administration in its dealings 
■with Secession, and has been justly regarded as one of the finest 
of his oratorical displays. 

April 15th, 1862, he was appointed a Brigadier-General oi 
volunteers, and March lith, 1863, was promoted to the Major 
Generalship. He was assigned to the command of a division 
under General Sigel, distinguishing himself at the second Bull 
Eun battle, Auarust, 1862. At Chancellorsville his division oi 
the eleventh corps was panic stricken by the attack of Stone 
wall Jackson, and was routed in spite of his attempts to rally it. 
He succeeded, however, in reforming it, and though in reserve 
for the next two days, its conduct was creditable. At Gettys- 
burg, where not only his own division, but the eleventh corp3 
was temporarily under his command. General Schurz and his 
soldiers retrieved fully their former reputation ; no troops in the 
army behaving with more steadiness and no commander being 
more conspicuous for bravery. In the early autumn of 1863, 
General Schurz and his division formed a part of the eleventh 
corps, which, under the command of General Howard were sent 
West to reenforce the Army of the Cumberiand. He took part 
in the battles around Chattanooga, and distinguished himself 
there as he had done in the East. On the reorganization of the 
Western Army, under General Sherman, General Schurz re- 
signed, and returned to Milwaukee, from whence he soon 
removed to Detroit, Michigan. 

At the conclusion of the war, General Schurz was appointed 



CARL SCHURZ, 407 

by President Johnson Commissioner to visit the South and ex- 
amine and report upon the affairs of the Freedmen's Bureau. 
His report, which was verj full and able, displeased the President 
exceedingly. During a part of 1865-66, he was the Washington, 
correspondent of the New York Tribune. In the latter part of 
1866, he established the Delroit Post, a very able paper, still in 
existence ; but subsequently disposed of it, and removing to St. 
Louis started the WesiUche Post, of which he is still part propri- 
etor, and to which he contributes frequently. He was a Dele- 
gate to the Republican Convention of May, 1868, at Chicago, of 
which he was temporary chairman, and a leading spirit, and in 
the ensuing winter was elected (as a Republican) to the United 
States Senate, succeeding John B. Henderson. He took his seat 
March 4th, 1869, and his term expires March 4th, 1875. He is 
one of the youngest members of the Senate, in which body he has 
no superior in direct, pointed attack, skilful and graceful vehe- 
mence, profound mastery of the great principles of political science, 
and the wide range of his scholarship. His knowledge of the 
history of America and Europe is very perfect, and he possesses 
a wonderful facility in acquiring languages, speaking and writ- 
ing most of those of Europe, and some of the Oriental tongues. 

Few dare meet him in debate, for all are aware that he is 
thoroughly equipped for the conflict, and that the force which 
he holds in reserve would readily render all their efforts futile. 
Though quiet, and apparently cold in manner to the superficial 
observer, there is in him a depth of feeling, an earnestness of 
patriotism, and a heartiness of friendship which make him a 
very earnest friend, as he is a stern and unrelenting enemy. 

At the Chicago Convention of May, 1868, he was very active 
in promoting General Grant's election ; but he early became dis- 
satisfied with his course, and became identified with the bolting 
party in Missouri, in their advocacv of free-trade and a universal 



408 MEN OF OUR DAY, 

amnesty. In the Senate, while ever courteous, he has for some 
time past been conspicuous for the severity and eloquence of his 
attacks on the Administration. The sale of arms to France was 
investigated at his instigation and that of Senator Sumner. 

By the North German statesmen, Senator Schurz is pleasantly 
remembered, and his career has been eagerly watched by them. 
When he ran for the Senate against Henderson and Ben Loan, 
it is said that old Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister at Wash- 
ington, appeared for the only time in his life in that city, on 
"Newspaper Row," sanguine to get points in favor of his friend. 

The Senator is on friendly terms with Prince von Bismarck, 
and takes a deep interest in all that concerns the Fatherland ; 
but he is too fully aware of the grand opportunities which our 
country offers to a man of great gifts and abilities, to desire ever 
to return to Germany as a residence. "America," he says, with 
emphasis, " is my country, and here is to be my future." 

Senator Schurz is now in the prime of manhood, forty-three 
years of age, tall, slender, but of graceful figure, and broad 
shoulders. He is very near sighted, wears spectacles constantly, 
and in his air and bearing combines the soldier and the scholar. 
Though not rich, he possesses a competence, and has that best 
of all wealth, an accomplished and excellent wife, to whom he 
is devotedly attached, and beautiful and intelligent children, who 
inherit the fondness of both parents for study. A volume of 
the Senator's orations and addresses was published in 1865. 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 




I LIVER PERRY MORTON was born in Wayne county, 
Indiana, on the -ith of August, 1823, and, becoming an 
orphan while yet very young, was placed under the care 
of his grandmother and two aunts, living in Hamilton 
county, Ohio, In early youth he served for awhile with a 
brother in the hatter's trade, but, in 1839, was placed at school 
in his native county, under the tuition of Professor S. K. Hos- 
hour, then principal of the Wayne county seminary, and now 
a professor in the Northwestern Conference university, at Indi- 
anapolis. His honored instructor says of him, at this period 
of his life, "If some knowing genius had then suggested to me 
that the future governor, par excellence, of Indiana, was then 
ir. the group around me, I would probably have sought him in 
a more bustling form, with brighter eyes and a more marked 
hiiad than Oliver's. But time has shown that in him was the 
mens sana in corpore sano, which the college, the acquisition of 
jurisprudence, legal gymnastics at the bar, the political crisis of 
the past, and the present exigencies of the nation, have fully 
developed, and now present him the man for the most responsi- 
ble position in the gift of a free people." After leaving the 
seminary, young Morton entered Miami university, at Oxford, 
Ohio, where he appears under a more favorable guise, as the 
star member of the Beta Theta Pi society, and the best debater 

in the coUege. Leaving the university without graduating, he 

409 



410 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

went to Centreville, Indiana, and began the study of law witli 
the Hon. John S. Newman, bending all his energies to the tho- 
rough acquisition of his profession. In 18-i5, he married Miss 
Lucinda M. Burbank, of Centreville, a lady of rare intelligence 
and refinement, whose untiring and benevolent efforts, during 
the recent war of the civil rebellion, for the relief of the Indiana 
volunteers, have honored both herself and her husband. 

Admitted to the bar in 1846, Mr. Morton soon took a front 
rank as a jurist and advocate, commanding, by his natural and 
acquired abilities, a large and lucrative practice. In the spring 
of 1852, he was elected circuit judge, acquiring among his fel- 
low-members of the bar, as well as in the public estimation, a 
high reputation for thoroughness and fairness. When, in the 
spring of 1854, the Democratic party, of which he had always 
been a member, repealed the Missouri compromise and passed 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he promptly seceded from the party, 
and thenceforth co-operated with the Hepublican party in its 
efforts to stay the spread of slavery and slave territory. Yet. 
on the subject of free trade, internal improvements, etc., he re- 
mained essentially in harmony with this old party, nor did he 
repudiate these principles in his departure from the Democracy, 
or in his acceptance of the nomination for the governorship of 
Indiana, which was tendered to him, in 1856, by acclamation. 
Having consented to head the Republican State ticket, he accom- 
panied his Democratic competitor — Ashbel P. Willard — in a 
vigorous and thorough canvass of the entire State, doing noble 
work, wherever he went, for the cause of Republicanism. Yet, 
although he was defeated, the large vote which he received, con- 
sidering the many difficulties under which he labored, and the 
youth of his party in the State, was justly to be considered a 
victory. From this time forward, Morton's character seemed to 
develop into new strength and harmony, and the superiority of 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 411 

his mental organization became more generally acknowledged. 
From the end of this campaign, however, to the commencement 
of that of 1860, he asked no honors of his party, but was con- 
tent to labor, energetically and constantly, for the promotion of 
its success. His sound judgment and eminently practical mind 
gave him new influence in political councils, where he was 
acknowledged as the best of engineers and an authority as a 
framer of policy. The Eepublican party in Indiana, from its 
inception to 1860, owes its advancement largely to his untiring 
ze-xl, Avise counsels, and personal influence. 

When that important campaign opened, Mr. Morton's name 
again appeared on the Eepublican ticket as nominee for lieu- 
tenant-governor, "for reasons which were, at that time, supposed 
to have some weight, but which have since faded so completely 
that it seems almost incredible that he was ever thought of for 
so inferior a position." Again he plunged into, the canvass of 
the State with that vigor of intellect and body which few men 
possess, in an equal degree, showing a scope of view and a con- 
cise, but logical, method of statement and argument which 
rendered him unanswerable by his Democratic opponents, and 
which entitled him to the front rank of expounders of the Ee- 
publican doctrines. The Eepublican ticket in Indiana, as in all 
the Northern States, was successful, and, on the 14th day of Jan- 
nary, 1861, he was duly qualified as lieutenant-governor, and 
took his seat as president of the Senate. He occupied this posi- 
tion but two days, when, in consequence of the election, by the 
Legislature, of the governor elect — Hon. Henry S. Lane — to the 
Senate for a six-years' term, he became Governor of Indiana, 
and took the oath of office. Upon assuming the executive chair, 
Governor Morton found the public interests in a critical 
condition. Under previous loose, corrupt administrations, the 
pablic treasury had been depleted by wanton extravagance and 



412 MEX OP OUR DAY. 

official peculation, tlie sinking fund had been miserably misman 
aged, and a regular system of frauds had been carried on by 
State and county officers in the disposition of the swamp lands, 
until the credit of the State abroad was so much impaired that 
she had become a borrower to pay her debts, and was, literally, 
" a by-word among her own citizens." The new governor set 
himself earnestly to work to bring order out of confusion, to 
renovate the different departments of government, to replenish 
a depleted treasury and to redeem the credit of the State. He 
inaugurated a new era of honesty, economy, and good financial 
management, which saved the State many millions of dollars, 
and rescued her name from infamy and distrust. 

But a new and still more threatening danger was to be 
averted from his beloved " Hoosier State." The gathering 
cloud of disunion and civil war hung over the country, and it 
became evident that Indiana was aflflicted with so large a share 
of disloyalty, that the advocates of secession even confidently 
counted upon material aid from her, in the shape of men and 
arms, in their proposed treasonable designs. Governor Morton 
was determined, however, that this scarce concealed treason 
should be nipped "in the bud," and to commit his State fully 
and unequivocally on the side of freedom and loyalty. Early 
in the spring of 1861, he visited the President at Washington, 
and assured him, that if he pursued a vigorous policy, he could 
pledge him at least six thousand Hoosiers for the defence of 
the Union. When, at length, in April, the attack upon Sumter 
had both startled and fired the northern heart, and the Presi- 
dent issued his call for seventy -five thousand troops — Indiana's 
quota being fixed at six regiments, of seven hundred and fifty 
men each — Governor Morton issued a proclamation, which, in 
eight da7/s, rallied over twelve thousand men to the defence of 
the national flag. The first six regiments marjhed promptly 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 413 

forwara to the iield, attracting at all points general admiration 
and surprise at the perfection of their equipment; and Governor 
Morton's efficiency was held up as an incentive for other State 
executives to follow in nearly all the northwestern States ; and 
hardly had these first troops reached the field, before the ever- 
thoughtful governor sent agents to follow their footsteps, at- 
tend to their wants, and see that all their little needs were 
supplied while in health, and that they were properly cared for 
when sick, "With Governor Morton, indeed, may be said to 
have originated the plan of sending State agents to visit and 
care for troops in the field ; and, throughout the war, his agents 
uniformly distanced those of all other States. A few days 
after, the governor tendered an additional six regiments to the 
President. His message to the Legislature, which he had called 
in extra session, was full of determined and lofty patriotism. 
Laying aside all party prejudices, he required only lovalty and 
capacity as the necessary qualifications for positions of influ- 
ence; and so great, indeed, was the liberality shown by him to 
the Democracy, as to arouse the jealousy of the Republican,;, 
who criticised his course with much severity during this special 
session. 

Meanwhile, the neighboring State of Kentucky was in a 
very precarious state. Its governor, Magoffin (at heart a seces- 
sionist), was endeavoring not only to play into the hands of the 
South by preventing Kentucky from joining the hosts of free- 
dom, but to draw Indiana, Ohio, and other northern border 
States also into their power, by inducing them to hold a po- 
sition of neutrality, and assume the character of sovereign medi- 
ators between Government and the seceded States. Governor 
Morton, however, was not deceived by this specious plea of neu- 
trality. He firmly rejected all propositions to that eft'ect from 
Governor Magofiin ; and, desirous of keeping Kentucky " in 



Hi HEX OF OUK DAT. 

the Union," be dispatched thither numbers of his own secret 
agents, by whom he was promptly advised of the plans and 
operations of the secessionists in every part of that State. On 
the 16th of September, 1861, Governor ^[orton received from 
one of these agents, information of Zollicofier's advance into 
Kentucky, to a point some fourteen miles beyond the Tennessee 
line, and of a corresponding advance by Buckner's rebel force 
towards Louisville. The governor promptly countermanded 
an expedition under General Rousseau, which was just starting 
for St. Louis, and ordered the force to cross the Ohio into Ken- 
tucky — at the same time hastening every available man in 
Indiana, to the defence of Louisville, the safety of which was 
thus assured beyond a doubt. 

Fully convinced, now, that KentuoKy's neutrality was at an 
end, and that her soil was actually invaded by the rebels, Gov- 
ernor Morton withdrew his secret agents, and, appealing to his 
Hoosiers for help, to redeem the sister State from the enemy, 
he sent forward regiment after regiment into Kentucky, and 
before many months had passed, the Federals held Bowling 
Green, Zollicoffer was killed, his troops defeated at Mill Spring, 
and the soil of Kentucky cleared of rebels. This generous 
conduct endeared the governor to the Unionists of Kentucky, 
who virtually adopted him as their governor. We cite an in- 
cident in point. " Shortly after Kentucky was cleared of rebel 
troops, a very wealthy lady of Frankfort, the owner of a large 
number of slaves, visited some friends in Indianapolis, and on 
the second day of her visit inquired for Governor Morton 
Upon ascertaining that he was absent, and would not return 
for several days, she prolonged her visit somewiiat beyond the 
time she had intended to remain. The day for the governor's 
return having arrived, and he not appearing, the lady extended 
her visit still several days more, saying she would not leave In- 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 415 

dianapolis until she had seen him. A friend inquiring of her the 
reason why she was so anxious to see the Hoosier governor, she 
replied, " Because he is our governor, as well as yours, and has 
been ever since the beginning of the rebellion," And we are 
reminded, also, of the Indiana soldier, who interposed to stop 
an angry altercation in the streets of Frankfort, Kentucky, as 
to whether Magoffin (de facto), or Johnson (provisional), was 
governor of Kentucky, by the remark — " Hold on, gentlemen, 
you are all mistaken. I will settle this controversy. Neither 
of 3'-our men is governor of Kentucky, but Governor Morion^ of 
Indiana, is governor of Kentuchj, as his soldier-boys, with their 
blue coats and Enfield rifles, will soon show you." 

Despite the discouraging impressions produced upon the 
public mind, by the reverses to the national arms in tlie fixll of 
1861, twenty volunteer regiments were added to the twenty-four 
Indiana regiments already in the field by the end of the year, 
a result of the ever-constant fidelity of Governor Morton in 
following the absent troops, securing their pay, attending to 
their personal wants, and providing for their fomilies at home. 
But the same energy and fraternal care which inspired confidence 
in the volunteers, also excited envy and detraction at home, 
among a certain class of ambitious politicians and traitors to 
the national cause. Charges of mismanagement in State mili- 
tary matters, of corruption in official appointments and the 
awarding of contracts, became so frequent that, finally, in 
December, 1861, a Congressional Committee of Investigation 
visited Indianapolis, at the urgent and frequently repeated re- 
quest of the governor, and instituted a rigid examination of the 
management of the military affairs of the State. Their pub- 
lished report not only vindicated Governor Morton from all 
blame, but developed, in the most incontestable manner, his 
care to prevent fraud, peculation, and waste. It has been well 



416 MEN' OF OUR DAT. 

said of him, at this period, that, "as the war progressed, and 
the execution of all plans proposed by him resulted success- 
fully, he rose in the estimation of the President and Cabinet, 
until it was finally admitted by the knowing ones at Washing- 
ton, that his influence with the powers at that city was greater 
than that of any other man, outside of the national executive 
department, in the country. His thorough knowledge of the 
people of the northwest, his ready tact in adapting means to 
ends, his great forecasting and combining powers, and above ail 
his energy and promptness in the performance of all labor 
assigned him, secured to him a deference which few men in the 
nation enjoyed ; and more than once was his presence requested, 
and his counsel solicited, in matters of the greatest importance 
to the Government." 

The depression of the public mind during the winter of 
1861-62, seemed only to rouse Governor Morton to still greater 
resolutions and endeavors ; and by his indefatigable exertion;;, 
six regiments, by the last of February, 1S62, were added to the 
number of those already in the service. About the commence- 
ment of the year, a wide-spread and formidable western con- 
spiracy, in aid of the Southern Rebellion, was discovered to ex- 
ist in most of the loyal States, known, in some places, as the 
" Star in the West," in others, as the " Self Protecting Broth- 
ers," '' Sons of Liberty," etc., bat most generally, as " The Order 
of American Knights,'' in affiliation with the southern society 
of " Knights of the Golden Circle." The order became quite 
popular in the southern counties of Indiana, and its members 
were especially virulent in denunciation of the admiuistration, 
the " abolition war,'' and Governor ^Morton. Against him they 
especially charged, with a persistence which seemed to be 
proof against repeated denials, that he was instrumental in pro- 
curing the imposition, by Congress, of oppressive taxation ; and, 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON". 417 

also, corruption in the appointment of tlie first State quarter- 
master-general ; notwithstanding, in relation to tlie first charge, 
that he had b}^ good engineering so managed, that Indiana's 
share of this taxation had been " offset" by the sum due to the 
State, by the General Government, for advances made by the 
former in equipping the Indiana volunteers, etc., and in regard 
to the quartermaster, ignoring the flxct, that that able officer, as 
well as many to whom ho had given the best contracts, belonged 
to the Democratic party. More than this, also, they had the 
meanness to accuse Governor Morton of appropriating, secretly, 
to his own use, the county and personal donations made to sol- 
diers in camp ; although, the governor, as was well known, had 
borrowed on his own responsibility $600,000, with which he 
had paid bounties to regiments, which had refused to obey 
marching orders, unless they received the money. 

Indiana, indeed, at the commencement of the year 1863, was 
in a most precarious condition. Secret enemies had succeeded,, 
by the most unscrupulous means, in securing the election, on. 
what was familiarly known as the " butternut ticket," of a Le- 
gislature principally composed of men determinedly ojiposed to 
the prosecution of the war, and w^ho had deliberately sought 
seats in that body for the purpose of thwarting all loyal effort, 
and encouraging the cause of rebellion. Tiiese men, from the 
first, evincod a fixed determination to insult the executive of the 
State, deprive him of all power, and seize in their own hands 
the entire control of every department of the State government. 
On the second day of the session, the Senate received from the 
governor the usual biennial message, and ordered it to be printed;, 
but the House refused to receive it, returned it to the govei-nor, 
and passed a resolution receiving and adopting the message of 
the Governor of New York. Beginning its legislative career 

•rith thi.< deliberate insult to the executive, it continued, during 
27 



418 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

its session of fifty-nine days, to pursue its revolutionary policy 
with increased violence, and an open disregard of constitutional 
obligations, and even of ordinary decency. Occupying its time 
chiefly with the introduction of disloyal resolutions and the ut- 
terance of factious and treasonable sentiments, which were calcu- 
lated to incite the people to resistance to Government, all the 
necessary and legitimate subjects of legislation were disregarded 
or kept back ; and, during the entire session, with a quorum in 
each House, every appropriation was suppressed until the last 
day, (when it was known that a quorum could not be had in the 
House,) except that for their own per diem and mileage, which 
was passed on the first day of the session. 

This dastardly conduct, of course, burdened Governor Morton 
and the loyal ofiicers of the State government with an immense 
load of responsibility. The benevolent institutions, the State 
arsenal, the soldiers in the field and hospital, the soldiers' fami- 
lies at home, the pay due the " Legion " for services at various 
times in repelling invasion on the border, the corps of special 
surgeons, military claims, the State debt, and the numerous other 
important measures and objects requiring prompt and liberal 
appropriations, were left utterly unattended to — although there 
was money enough in the treasury — by a set of men who did 
not forget to draw their own pay and mileage, and appropriate 
nearly $20,000 to the State printer. 

But the governor was nothing daunted by this disgraceful and 
perplexing state of affairs. Believing that to close the asylums 
would be a shame and a disgrace — a crime against humanity 
itself — and that to call back the Legislature, after their dastardly 
conduct of the previous session, would be not only useless out 
perilous to the peace and the best interests of the State, he 
established a bureau of finance, and so great a degree of success 
attended his efforts in obtaining money that he was enabled sue- 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON". 419 

cessfully to carry on all the institutions of the State, and keep 
the machinery of government in motion, until the next regular 
meeting of the Legislature. 

On the 20th of July, 1863, Governor Morton, being in Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, received the compliment of a request from the 
common council of that city, that he would sit for his portrait, 
to be hung in the City Hall, as a fitting remembrance of the 
indebtedness felt by the citizens to him for his services during 
the war. On the 23d of February, 1864, the Union State Con- 
vention placed bis name at the head of the Union ticket for 
1864. It was with the commencement of this campaign " that 
the great work of Governor Morton's life began ; a work more 
varied and arduous than, perhaps, was ever undertaken by any 
other State executive." The " Democratic " Legislature of 1863 
had, with the aid of the State officers of that period, surrounded 
him with such embarrassments that the performance of his civil 
functions was a most difficult and complicated task. Frequent 
calls for new levies of troops, the organization of regiments, 
and their preparation for the field, greatly increased his military 
labors. The wants of the sick and wounded soldiers at the front 
were daily multiplying, and thousands of dependent families at 
home had to be supported. The governor's well-known supe- 
riority in council, the ability which marked the success which 
attended his plans and measures, induced frequent demands for 
his presence at Washington. And yet, not only were these du- 
ties — civil and military, official and extra-official — not neglected, 
but they were performed with a readiness, skill and complete- 
ness which marked Governor Morton as one of the most extra- 
ordinary men of his times, and covered the name of Indiana 
with glory. In addition to all this, he gave his own personal 
attention to the campaign, delivering frequent speeches, which 
were powerful, and productive of incalculable good. Towards 



420 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the close, also, of tlie campaign, the atrocious designs of the 
" Sons of Liberty " seemed about to culminate in open revolt 
and anarchy. Over eighty thousand members, as was afterwards 
proved, existed in the State, thoroughly armed, waiting for the 
signal, to rise at the polls on election day, and Governor Morton'a 
life was especially marked. But he was prepared for the emer- 
gency ; his secret detectives were operating in every par^ of the 
State, and by their dexterity, the executive was constantly and 
promptly advised of all the schemes and designs of the con- 
spirators. He' possessed the knowledge of their financial re- 
sources, their military force and plans, their places of rendez- 
vous, their purchases of arms, and, through his agents, was " on 
hand " at every point, to foil every move, break up every plot, 
and suppress every incipient outbreak of disloyalty. Yet he 
wisely deferred any open, complete exposure of the " Sons of 
Liberty " until after the election, when a military court of in- 
quiry was convened, before which the Indiana ringleaders of 
treason were tried, convicted and punished. This detective 
work was the most important of the many signal services ren- 
dered to the State by Governor Morton ; and not to the State 
only, but to the Government of the United States itself. 

The Governor was re-elected by a sweeping majority, and 
under the new draft, the men of Indiana sprung promptly for- 
ward to the aid of Government. It was no longer — thanks to 
Governor Morton's labors for the soldiers — a disgrace to belong 
to an Indiana regiment, and soldiers of other States were fre- 
quently heard to say to the " Hoosier boys :" " We wouldn't 
mind fighting, if we had such a governor as you have." 

" During the winter of 1865," says a friend of the governor, 
" he was the most ubiquitous man in the United States. First 
at Washington, in council with the President ; then at the front, 
surveying with his own eyes the battle-field ; moving in person 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON". 421 

tbrougli tlie hospitals, ascertaining the wants of the sick and 
wounded; supervising the operations of his numerous agents; 
then at home, directing sanitary movements, appointing extra 
surgeons and sending them to the field, projecting new plans for 
th'e relief of dependent women and children, attending personally 
to all the details of the business of his office." And, when the 
war came to a glorious termination, he was the first to welcome 
the returning heroes to the State capital, where they were sump- 
tuously entertained, at the public expense ; promptly furnished 
with their pay, and sent rejoicing to their homes, with no un- 
necessary delay — feeling that their governor cared for them, as 
a father doth for his children. And, then, when the rush of 
business was over — when, for the first time in five years, he felt 
in some degree relieved from the immense weight of official 
responsibility and embarrassment, of gigantic difficulties he had 
been obliged to combat in placing Indiana in the front rank of 
loyal States ; of his intense and incessant anxiety for the success 
of the Union cause — then the high strung frame gave way, 
and in the summer of 1865, he was attacked with paralysis. 
Accordingly, by the advice of his physicians, he embarked with 
his family for Italy, followed by the prayers of thousands of 
loving hearts in Indiana, and by the respect of the nation. 
After his return to this country, he was elected to the United 
States Senate, on the Eepublican ticket, and as the successor of 
Hon. Henry S. Lane, for the term ending March, 4th, 1873. 

In the Senate, though embarrassed and restrained from the 
active labors he so much desires to perform, by the still feeble 
condition of his health, the result of those years of overwork, 
he has yet renderod excellent service to the country he so 
ardently loves. As a member of the important Committees on 
Foreign Relations, on Military Affairs, and on Agriculture, his 
counsels have been of great advantage to the Senate. His 



422 MEN OF OUR DAY 

speech on reconstruction, delivered in the winter of 1868, wag 
the most profoundly logical and able argument on that subject 
delivered in the Senate, — and even the enemies of reconstruc- 
tion acknowledged its power. 

The earnest friend of General Grant, and in the remembrance 
of his brave and successful leadership of our armies during the 
war, overlooking his errors of administration. Senator Morton 
has defended the President and his policy against those who 
were disposed to criticise it, with a zeal and vigor which recall to 
those who have long known him, the vehement loyalty of his 
speeches and labors during the war. 

But diflfer as we may with the Indiana Senator in regard to 
personal preferences, no one can fliil to accord to him a lofty 
patriotism and great purity and integrity of character. 



REUBEN E. FENTON. 



. .,^ ENATOR FENTON is one of the few men who, bred 
(^fll neither to law nor politics, but occupied during early life 
^ with mercantile pursuits, have entered later in their 
career into the political arena, and acquitted themselves 
so well as to be advanced to, and continued in, high station. 
Though himself a native of the State of New York, his family, 
like many others whose record we have given in this volume, 
are of Connecticut origin. He claims descent from Robert Fen- 
ton, a man of note among the settlers of the eastern part of Con- 
necticut, and who was one of the patentees of the town of Mans- 
field, when that town was set off from Windham, in 1703. During 
the Revolutionary war, the family was noted for its patriotism, 
and furnished its full share of soldiers for that great struggle. 
The grandfather of the Senator, about 1777, removed to New 
Hampshire, in which State his father was born. In the early 
part of the present century, Mr. Fenton, then an enterprising 
young farmer, removed to what is now the town of Carroll, 
Chautauqua county, New York, then a portion of the Holland 
land patent, where he purchased a tract of land, and by dint of 
constant hard work, brought this portion of " the forest primeval" 
into the condition of a pleasant and profitable farm. Here — 
July 4, 1819 — his son, Reuben E. Fenton, was born. 

Young Fenton's early years were spent upon the paternal 
homestead, and though an amiable, friendly and popular boy 

423 



424 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

among his associates, lie seems to have developed no remarkable 
genius or ability in his boyhood. He was somewhat fond of 
military studies, and in the boyish trainings was uniformly 
chosen captain, and it was probably owing to this taste that he 
was chosen colonel of the 162d regiment, New York State 
militia, before he was twenty-one years of age. 

His opportunities for acquiring an education were very lim- 
ited, but they were well improved. He w^as a good scholar 
when he was in the common-school, and when, subsequently, he 
passed a few terms in different academies, he made rapid pro- 
gress as a student, and won the approbation of his pieceptors 
for his manly qualities and exemplary deportment. He read 
law one year, not with the view of going into the profession^ 
but to make himself familiar with the principles and forms of 
that science, under the impression that this knowledge would be 
useful to him in whatever business he might engage. 

At the age of twenty, he commenced business, with very 
limited means and under adverse circumstances. But the fact 
did not discourage him, nor turn him from his purposes. The 
world was before him, and what others had accomplished, young 
Fentou resolved should be done by him. He went at his work 
with all the earnestness and energy of his character, and a few 
years saw him a successful and prosperous merchant. While in 
this pursuit, he turned his attention to the lumber trade, as an 
auxiliary to his mercantile business. He was still a young man 
when he purchased his first " boards and shingles," and as he 
floated off upon his fragile raft, valued at less than one thousand 
dollars, there were not wanting those who wondered at hia 
temerity, and the failure of his enterprise was confidently pre- 
dicted. But nothing could dampen his ardor. He tied his little 
raft safely on the shore of the Ohio, near Cincinnati, went into 
tho city found a customer, sold his lumber, and returned to hia 



REUBEN E, FENTON 425 

home with a pride and satisfaction never excelled in after years, 
though he went the round with profits tenfold greater. Lum- 
bering became in a few years his principal business ; and to such 
a man, success and competence were but a matter of time. He 
soon enjoj'ed the reputation of being the most successful lum- 
berman on the Alleghany and Ohio rivers ; but this came only 
because he wrought it by untiring perseverance and indefati- 
gable energy. 

In 1843, Mr. Fenton was chosen supervisor of his native 
town, and held the position for eight successive years. Three 
of these eight he was chairman of the board, though the board 
was two to one Whig, while he was a well-known Democrat. 
But he was courteous and aflable, manly and upright, genial 
and sensible, and his opponents, by common consent, selected 
him to preside over their deliberations. 

In 1849, his friends nominated him for the assembly, and he 
came within twenty-one votes of being elected, though the suc- 
cessful candidate was one of the oldest and most popular men 
in the assembly district, which was strongly Whig. 

In, 1852, he was put in nomination by the Democrats for 
Congress, and elected by fifty-two majority, though the district, 
from the manner in which it was accustomed to vote, should 
have given at least 3,000 majority against him. He took his 
seat, on the first Monday in December, 1853, in a House which 
was Democratic by about two to one. Mr. Douglas, chairman 
of the Senate Committee on Territories, in the course of the 
session, was beguiled into embodying in a bill which provided 
for the organization as territories of Kansas and Nebraska, a re- 
peal of that portion of the Missouri compromise of 1820, which 
forbade the legalization of slavery in any territory of the 
United States, lying north of north latitude, thirty-six degrees 
and thirty minutes. Mr. Fenton. with N. P. Banks, and quite 



4:26 MEN OF OUR PAY. 

a number of the younger Democrats, with Colonel Thomas H. 
Benton and other seniors, steadfastly opposed this proposition, 
and opposed the bill because of it. The bill was nevertheless 
forced through the House by a vote of 113 to 100, and became 
a law. In the division that thereupon ensued, Mr. Fenton took 
Republican ground with Preston King, Ward Hunt, George 
Opdyke, and other conspicuous Democrats, and he has never 
since been other than a Kepublican. 

In 1854, the American or Know Nothing party carried his 
district by a considerable majority (Mr. Fenton consenting to be 
a candidate on the Saturday previous to election), as they did 
a good many others in the State ; but, in 1856, he ran on the 
FiiEMONT ticket, and was elected, and thence re-elecicd by 
large and generally increasing majoriti^^s down to ISGl, when 
he withdrew, having been nominated for Governor. He thus 
served five terms in Congress, each as the representative of the 
strongly Whig district composed of Chautauqua and Cattarau- 
gus counties, which contains many able and worthy men who 
were in full accord with its by-gone politics, and to the almost 
unanimous acceptance of his constituents. 

Immediately on entering Congress, Mr. Fenton espoused the 
cause of the soldiers of 1812, and shortly after introduced a bill 
providing for the payment of the property accounts between 
the United States and the State of New York, for military 
stores furnished in the war of 1812. This measure he con- 
tinued to urge upon the attention of Congress, and finally, on 
the 30th May, 1860, had the satisfaction to witness its passage 
in the House by a vote of 98 to 80. He had a leading place on 
important committees, and performed the duties appertaining to 
these positions in a manner satisfactory to all. It is but simple 
truth to say that he was one of the quietly industrious and 
faithful members of the House. Nor Vv^as he a silent representa- 



REUBEN" E. FENTON. 427 

tive. lie could talk when there seemed a necessity for speak- 
ing. During his Congressional career, he delivered able and 
effective speeches against the repeal of the Missouri Comprom- 
ise act ; in advocacy of a cheap postal system ; the bill to ex- 
tend invalid pensions ; for the improvement of rivers and har- 
bors ; to regulate emigration to this country ; against the policy 
of the Democratic party with regard to Kansas ; for the final 
settlement of the claims of the soldiers of the Revolution; in 
vindication of the principles and policy of the Republieau party ; 
on the Deficiency bill ; the bill to facilitate the payment of boun- 
ties ; on the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law ; on providing for 
payment of losses by the rebellion, etc. 

Mr. Fenton served in Congress nearly to the end of the war 
for the Union, of which he was one of the firmest and most 
efl&cient supporters. Believing the Union to be right and the 
rebellion wrong throughout, he gave his best energies to the 
national cause, voting steadily for taxes, loans, levies, drafts, 
and for the emancipation policy whereby they were rendered 
effectual. Men of greater pretensions were abundant in Con- 
gress, but there was none more devoted, or more ready to 
invoke and to make sacrifices for the triumph of the Union. 

In the fall of 1862, Mr. Fenton's name was favorably men- 
tioned in connection with the office of governor, but finding 
General Wadsworth was to be pressed for a nomination, Mr. 
Fenton promptly withdrew from the canvass, and yielded to the 
patriot soldier his warmest support. In 1864, Mr. Fenton was 
designated as the standard-bearer of the Republican party, and 
chosen governor by a majority considerably larger than Mr. 
Lincoln's ; and two years later, he was unanimously re-non..ina- 
ted, and chosen by an increased majority. 

The administration of Governor Fenton commenced at the 
culminating period of thf war, and required the exercise of 



428 MEN OF OUR DAI 

industry, method, decision, and the power ot aiscnmlnating, 
originating, and executing. He brought to the discharge of 
his new position all these forces of body and mind, and proved 
patient amid perplexities, quick in his perceptions, safe in his 
judgments, mastering toilsome details, and successfully meeting 
difficult emergencies. His practical training, his wide experi- 
ence, his luminous intellect and well-disciplined judgment, 
saved him from the failure that a man of less power might 
have encountered. His official relations with our soldiers did 
not weaken tue attachments that had given him the honored 
title of the " soldier's friend." He was prompt to reward merit, 
and skilful to harmonize differences that often threatened 
demoralization and serious injury to many of the military 
organizations then in the field. Upon the return home of the 
soldiers, Governor Fenton addressed a letter to the war commit- 
tees of the various districts in the State, in which he suggested 
the propriety of a hearty and spontaneous welcome to the 
heroic defenders of the country, on the part of the people of the 
State — an ovation to demonstrate the gratitude of those whose 
battles they had so bravely fought. 

Governor Fenton's judicious course fully commanded the 
public confidence and approval, and at the close of the first 
year of his term, many of the most prominent and influential 
citizens of New York city addressed him a letter of thanks, 
promising him their hearty co-operation and support in his 
efforts to improve the condition and health of the metropolis. 
A few months later, when he visited New York city, thousands 
of the best men of New York waited upon him in person, to 
assure him of their respect and approval of his course. 

He found it necessary to veto several bills of the first Legisla- 
ture which sat after his election, in consequence of their de- 
priving the city of New York of valuable franchises, without 



REUBEN E. FENTON. 429 

conferring compensating advantages. For these acts, he waa 
'thanked publicly, by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors 
of New York county. Governor Fenton's views upon tlie 
political issues which were involved in Mr. Johnson's attempted 
"policy" were ably expressed, in a letter addressed to the 
committee of a meeting held to ratify .the action of the State 
Union Convention, in October, 186Q, and soon after in a speech 
delivered at a large political gathering in Jamestown. During 
the canvass that followed, his opponents were unable to assail 
any portion of his official record, and his friends proudly 
pointed to it, as what a patriotic governor's should be. 

When, in August, 1866, Mr. Johnson, in the course of his 
political tour, generally known as " swinging round the circle," 
visited Albany, a proper regard for the high office he held, 
required that the governor of the State should proffer its 
hospitalities to him. Governor Fenton did so in the following 
brief but dignified address : — • 

" Mk. President : — • 

" With high consideration for the Chief Magistrate of the 
Republic, I address you words of welcome in behalf of our 
citizens and the people of the State whose capital you visit. 
We extend to you and to your suite, hospitality and greeting, 
and desire your safe conduct as you go hence to pay honor 
to the memory of the lamented Douglas, — to the State also 
distinguished as the home and final resting place of the patriot 
and martyr, Lincoln. 

" I have no power to give due expression to the feelings of 
this assemblage of citizens, nor to express in fitting terms the 
respect and magnanimity of the whole people upon an occasion 
so marked as the coming to our capital and to our homes of 
the President of the United States. In their name I give 
assurance to your excellency of their fidelity, patriotism and 
jealous interest in all that relates to the good order, progress, 
and freedom of all the States, and of their earnest hope that 



430 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

peace will soon open up to the people of the whole land new 
fields of greater liberty, prosperity and power," 

The Eepublican party, in 1866, saw the necessity of selecting 
wise men for its nominees. The more discerning politicians 
felt that there was reason to fear an unfavorable result of the 
canvass. Ilerculean efforts were being made to defeat the 
party at the polls. A division had been created among those 
who had heretofore professed its principles. A number of 
influential gentlemen openly repudiated its ideas in regard to 
reconstruction. The Philadelphia Convention had produced 
a schism, which it was feared might prove formidable, if not 
disastrous. Those who were the most pronounced in favor 
of the policy of President Johnson, were the most earnest in 
their opposition to Governor Fenton. The question naturally 
arose whether this marked hostility might not prove fatal to 
success, by stimulating the Conservatives to greater effort, and 
enabling them to exert more powerful influence over the 
moderate and doubtful portion of the party; and whether a 
man less likely to be thus assailed might not be stronger. On 
the other hand, there was to be considered the effect which the 
leading measures of his administration had produced on the 
popular mind. His national policy had contributed in a 
marked degree to the success of the war. He had entered upon 
his term of office as successor to one who disapproved of many 
of the principal features of the war policy of the Government, 
and who had been elected because of his decided views in 
relation thereto. He had stimulated volunteering, and secured 
for the State a more just recognition of its rights ; had worked 
clear from the complications in which the public interest had 
been involved by the blundering and incompetency of the pro- 
vost marshal general ; and had relieved New York from a large 
portion of the dreaded burden of the draft. He had done 



REUBEN E. FEXTON, 431 

mucli, with the co-operation of the head of the State fitianca 
department, to originate a financial system which rendered the 
credit of the State stable and secure, and furnished the means 
to supply the demands of war, without being felt as oppressive. 
By his keen appreciation of the wants of the soldiers, his tender 
solicitude for their welfare, and his earnest eftbrts in their 
behalf, he had firmly attached them to himself. In his State 
policy, he had sought to foster all the material interests of the 
commonwealth ; and had reluctantly interposed to the defeat 
of needed enterprises when their aid would render the burden 
of taxation onerous, and awaited a more favorable opportunity 
to join in giving them that aid. He was vigilant in his at- 
tention to the commercial wants of the State, both in the great 
metropolis and through its extensive lines of transit. This un- 
wavering devotion to the essential prosperity of the State, 
elicited confidence and commendation. All the discriminating 
judgment and forecast of the statesman had been displayed 
in a marked degree. These views were impressed on the 
minds of the representative men of his party, and when the 
Convention assembled, so strongly did they prevail, and so 
heavily did they outweigh adverse considerations, that no 
other name was suggested, and he was unanimously nominated 
by acclamation. The Democrats entered upon the canvass full 
of hope. Prominent places were given by them, on the State 
ticket, to Republicans who dissented from the principles enun- 
ciated by the Republican party, and nominations of a like 
character were made for many local offices in various portions 
of the State. The result showed that Governor Fenton's 
8tr>».i:gth had not been miscalculated. He was re-elected by a 
majority five thousand larger than that given him in his first 
canvass. 

The year 1867 furnished the occasion for a continuation of a 



432 MKX OF OLR DAY. 

policy which had provovi so aooeptable. aud it is not necessarv 
that we should dwell upon its features. 

The absence of all malevolence in the heart of Governor Fen- 
ton, and the broad charity of his nature, were display evl during 
that year. The remains of the rebel dead had been left 
unburied at Autiotam. A letter from Governor Fenton, breath 
ing the spirit of loyalty and humanity, decided the committee at 
onoe to au act both Christian and proper, aud in accorvlance with 
the spirit of the law ot Maryland, which authorized the pur- 
chase of a cemetery, and created a corporation to carry out the 
declared object of burying in it^ all who fell on either side 
during the invasion of Lee at the battle of Antittam. In that 
letter he took the high ground that it " was a war less of sec- 
tions than of systems," and that the nation could confer decent 
burial on the southern dead while condemning and sternly 
opposing the heresies for which they had siicrificed themselves ; 
and that attachment to the Union and devotion to the most 
thorough measures for its preser\-ation and restoration were not 
inconsistent with the broadest charity, and the observance of 
sacred oblig-ations to the dead. This letter accomplished the 
intended purpose ; aud the bones of the rebel soldiers who fell 
on that memorable field, were interred as befitting not only a 
legal obligation, but the highest demands of civili;:ation and 
our common humanity. 

In his message to the Legislature of lSt>S, Governor Fenton 
forcibly expressed himself in favor of materially reducing the 
number of items in the tax lists, and v f a re-adjustment of the 
assessn^ent laws — now so glaringly unequal — in orxier that every 
source of wealth might Ivar its just proportion of burtlen. lie 
also took strong ground in defence of the inviolat<^ maintenance 
of the national taith. In his usual terse and vigorous style, he 
wgucd against the legjvlity of the Governments institutevi by 



REUBEN E. FENTON. 433 

riwidont Johnson, after the cessation of active hostilities, and 
held that the reconstruction acts of Congress were necessary, 
because the Southern States had rejected, with scorn, the peace- 
oftering of tlie Constitutional Amoudnicnt. lie eloquently 
expressed himself in behalf of the rights of the freedman, iu 
consideration of his manhood and loyalty, to protection through 
law, and to the elective franchise. 

Governor Fenton realized that the people of New York 
had made him their Chief Magistrate, and that thoy looked to 
him, and to no other person, for the faithful discharge of the 
duties of the responsible position. He was controlled by no 
clique — he was the agent of no cabal. Tie patiently listened to all 
who desired to consult him, and then followed the dictates ofdiis 
own good judgment. lie had no prejudice so strong, nor 
patiality so great, as to lead him to do an unjust act. lie was a 
careful thinker and a hard worker. No man ever labored 
more hours in the executive chamber than he did. What- 
ever witrk engaged his attention, he attended to it personally, 
even to the minutest details. 

At the State Republican Convention, in September, 1S68, it 
being understood that Governor Fenton would not consent to be 
again a candidate, Hon. John A. Griswold was nominated for 
that office, but the Democrats being successful on the State ticket, 
lion. John T. llotVinan was elected Governor. 

The Legislature, in the winter of 1869, elected Reuben E. 
Fenton United States Senator for six years from March, 1869, 
and he took his place on the -ith of March following, succeeding 
•lion. Edwin D. Morgan. In the Senate, Mr. Fenton lias mani- 
fested similar traits to those which made him so acceptable as a 
Governor, lie belongs to the liberal wing of the Republican 
party, favors decentralization in the National Government, uni- 
versal amnesty, and impartial suflVage, and does not regard 
28 



43-4 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

with satisfaction, the corruption which springs from a personal 
government, or from placing power and influence in the hands 
of bitter partisans who only desire it for their own private aims 
and emolument. Unfortunately he and President Grant differ 
in their views, and he has been in consequence most ruthlessly 
proscribed and denounced bj the administration papers through- 
out the years 1871 and 1872. But the Senator is too fair and 
upright a man to be harmed by this abuse. 



WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. 




^l|lL'LIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM is a direct descend- 
ant, in the sixth generation, from the Rev. Thomas 
Buckingham and his wife Hester Hosmer, who were of 
Hartford, Connecticut, in 1666. His father, Captain 
Buckingham, as he was called, was a farmer, in Lebanon, Con- 
necticut, a shrewd manager of property, of clear mind and 
sound judgment, and frequently appealed to as umpire in 
matters of difference between neighbors. His wife was a 
remarkable woman, having few equals in all that was good, 
endowed with strong natural powers both of mind aad body, 
indomitable perseverance and energy ; with, as one of her 
neighbors described her, " a great generous heart." 

The son of these worthy people, who was born at Lebanon, 
May 24th, 1804, happily partook of the strong points of both 
his parents. His father being absent from home, on business, 
during a portion of the year, much of the work and care of the 
farm necessarily devolved upon him, while yet a mere boy, and 
he thus early acquired habits of industry and self-reliance. 
One who knew him well at this period of his life, says, " I don't 
think any thing left in his care was ever overlooked or 
neglected." The same friend says, " he was early trained in the 
school of benevolence. I have often seen him sent off on 
Saturday afternoons, when the weather was severe, with a 

wagon load of wood, from his father's well-stored wood-shed, 

435 



436 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and a number of baskets and budgets, destined to clieer some 
destitute persons in tlie neigliborliood, and make them comfort- 
able. He received his education at the common school in 
Lebanon, and passed a term or two at Colchester Academy — 
evincing a peculiar fondness for the study of mathematics, 
especially in the higher branches. As he grew up, he developed 
as a lively, spirited "fast" young man, in the best acceptation 
of that term — his habits being excellent, and integrity being a 
marked feature in his character. Indeed, he was regarded as 
rather a leader among the young people with whom he assc^ 
ciated. 

In early manhood, he was a member of a cavalry militia 
company,, and " trooped" Avith the same energy which has since 
characterized him in whatever he undertook — excelling in 
military matters, and becoming a master of the broadsword 
exercise. 

Commencing mercantile life as a clerk in the city of New 
York, at the age of twenty years, he removed to Norwich, 
Connecticut in 1825, and entered into the employ of Messrs. 
Hamlin, Buckingham & Giles. A few years later he com- 
menced business on his own account, and by enterprise, 
thrift, punctuality, and honorable dealing, became a most 
successful and widely respected merchant. He has since been 
extensively engaged in various manufactures; especially in 
the Hay ward Rubber Company, of which he was treasurer for 
many years; and the town of Norwich has been largely 
indebted to his example and influence. He was one of the 
founders of the Norwich Free Academy, and, in 1849, was 
elected mayor of the city, which office he filled for two 
years. His eminently practical mind and great executive 
ability have contributed largely to the manufacturing and 
industrial interests of his native State ; and the whole weight 



WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. 437 

of his personal character and sympathies has ever been enlisted 
in support of religion, temperance, industry, and education. 
"We have it on excellent authority, that the governor, at the 
commencement of his business career, made a resolve to set 
aside one fifth of each year's income to be applied to objects of 
religious benevolence ; and that his experience was for many 
years, and perhaps is still, that each year's income was so 
much in excess of that which preceded it, that at the year's end 
he always had an additional sum lo distribute to objects of 
benevolence, to make out the full fifth of his receipts. A 
striking illustration this, of the declaration of holy writ: 
" There is that scattereth and yet increaseth." During the 
eight terms of his gubernatorial career, his entire salary, 
as governor, was bestowed upon benevolent objects; for the 
most part, we believe, on Yale college, in which he founded 
several scholarships, for worthy but indigent students. In- 
deed, the spirit of benevolence which he inherited from his 
parents, has ever remained a distinguishing feature of his 
character. In providing for the wants of the poor and unfor- 
tunate, and in the unostentatious performance of every good 
work, Governor Buckingham's life has been a record of un- 
wearied industry. 

The qualities which had gained him the respect of his fellow- 
citizens, as they became more widely known, commended him 
to the public as a candidate for higher positions of trust and 
responsibility. In 1858, he was elected Governor of Connecti- 
cut, and to the same office he was re-elected in 1859, and 1860. 
Again, on the 1st of April, 1861, he was chosen to the guberna- 
torial chair, by a majority of two thousand and eighty-six votes, 
the entire Republican State ticket being elected, at the same 
time, together with a large Union and Republican majority in 
both houses of the General Assembly. On the 15th of the samo 



438 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

montli, he received the President's call for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers. The Legislature was not then in session, but the 
governor had been among the first to see (in 1860) the rising 
cloud of " the irrepressible conflict." He had long since aban- 
doned any hopes of settling the national difficulties by compro- 
mise ; he had recognized them as questions on -which every 
citizen must decide squarely, for right or wrong, for freedom or 
slavery. Therefore his action, when the storm burst, was 
prompt and decided. He took immediate measures on his own 
responsibility, to raise and equip the quota of troops required 
from Connecticut ; his own extensive financial relations enabling 
him to command the funds needed for the purpose. He threw 
himself into the work, with all the force of his energetic nature ; 
and during that week of anxiety, when "Washington was isolated 
from the north, by the Baltimore rising, his message — that the 
State of Connecticut was coming "to the rescue," with men and 
money, was the Jirst intimation received by the President, that 
help was near at hand. The banks came to his aid, and money 
and personal assistance were tendered freely by prominent par 
ties in every section of the State — so that, by the time (May 1st) 
that the Legislature had assembled in extra session (in response 
to a call which he had made upon the receipt of Mr. Lincoln's 
proclamation), he had the pleasure of informing them that forty- 
one volunteer companies had already been accepted, and that a 
fifth regiment was ready. Ten days later, the first regiment, " 
eight hundred and thirty-four strong, under Colonel (afterwards 
General) A. H. Terry, left the State, equipped with a thorough- 
ness — as were all the Connecticut troops — which elicited univer- 
sal admiration from all who beheld them. 

Soon after he pronounced his conviction, in an official 
communication to the Washington cabinet, that "this is no 
ordinary rebellion," that it " should be met and suppressed by a 



WILLIAM ALFBED BUCKINGHAM. 439 

power corresponding with its magnitude," that the President 
" should ask for authority to organize and arm a force of half a 
million of men, for the purpose of quelling the rebellion, and 
for an appropriation from the public treasury sufficient for their 
support," " that legislation upon every other subject should be 
regarded as out of time and place, and the one great object of 
suppressing the rebellion be pursued by the Administration, 
with vigor and firmness." " To secure such high public inter- 
ests," said the governor, " the State of Connecticut will bind her 
destinies more closely to those of the General Government, and 
in adopting the measures suggested, she will renewedly pledge 
all her pecuniary and physical resources, and all her moral 
power," It will be seen, therefore, that Governor Buckingham 
took an accurate and comprehensive view of the extent, the 
probable course and the power of the war just inaugurated — 
and better would it have been for our country, if others of our 
leading statesmen had manifested, at that critical hour, the same 
calm, clear insight and broad statesmanship. There was nothing 
undecided in his thought or action. His suggestions upon every 
point relative to the prosecution of the war, and the policy of 
the State, were full of patriotic, far-seeing wisdom. lie was 
nobly seconded by a loyal Legislature, and though " peace men" 
tried to intimidate the Unionists, their attempts recoiled upon 
their own heads. By the 1st of March, 1862, fifteen Connecticut 
regiments were in the field, and by November following, 28,551 
soldiers had been furnished to the defence of the Union, by the 
little *' Wooden Nutmeg State." 

In April, 1862, Governor Buckingham was re-elected and hia 
efforts were as untiring as ever. No amount of disaster in the 
field, of hesitation in council, or of depression in the public 
mind, seemed to affect him. lie was always ready to make greater 
sacrifices ; always full of hope and determination ; and, with the 



440 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

late lamented John A. Andrew, the noble governor of the sister 
State of Massachusetts, lie was among the earliest to urge the 
necessity of an Emancipation Proclamation upon President Lin- 
coln. When that great step had at length been taken, he wrote 
to the President these cheering and congratulatory words : 

" Permit me to congratulate you and the country that you 
have so clearly presented the policy which you will hereafter 
pursue in suppressing the rebellion, and to assure you it 
meets my cordial approval, and shall have my unconditional 
support. The State has already sent into the army, and has 
now at the rendezvous, more than one half of her able-bodied 
men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, and 
has more to offer, if wanted, to contend in battle against the 
enemies of our Government." 

The spring campaign of 1863 was an exciting one; em- 
boldened by the ill -success of the national arms, the Democracy 
rallied around the standard, of " no more war !" while the Ee- 
publicans, with equal ardor, advocated a more vigorous prose- 
cution of the war, and were cordially seconded by the Connecti- 
cut soldiers in the field. Buckingham, however, was re-elected 
by a majority of 2637, in a total vote of 79,427, in which had 
been polled 9000 more votes than the year previous, and 2000 
more than the aggregate presidential vote of 1860. 

In April, 1864, Governor B\ickingham was re-nominated by 
the Republicans, against Origen S. Seymour, Democrat, and was 
elected by a majority of 5,658, in a total vote of 73,982. Again,' 
in 1865, he was re-elected governor over the same opponent by 
a majority of 11,035, in a vote of 73,374. 

In his annual message he strongly advocated giving soldiers 
in the field the privilege of the ballot, and national legislation 
for the abolishment of slavery. 

With 1865, closed Governor Buckingham's long gubernato- 



WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. 441 

rial career of eight years, of whicli five were " war years, fully 
tasking his every physical and mental power, and loading him 
with an incessant burden of responsibility and care. His course, 
during this arduous term of service, had commanded the uni- 
versal respect of his fellow-citizens, and the admiration of all 
loyal hearts throughout the Northern States. Prominent among 
that noble circle of loyal governors who rallied around the 
President, in his darkest hours, with brotherly advice and en- 
couraging words. Governor Buckingham's relations with Mr. 
Lincoln strongly remind us of those between President Wash- 
ington and Governor Trumbull, the " Brother Jonathan" of the 
Revolutionary war. 

After the close of his last term of service, in April, 1866, he 
returned to Norwich, where he quietly engaged again in mer- 
cantile atVuirs. 

In the National Eepublican Union Convention which met at 
Chicago in May, 1863, his name was strongly supported, though 
against his will, for the Vice-Presidency. On the 19th of May, 
in the same year, he was elected by the Legislature of Connecti- 
cut United States Senator from that State for six years from 
March 4th, 1869, succeeding Hon. James Dixon in that office. 
As a Senator Governor Buckingham has maintained the high and 
spotless reputation which has so long marked his character. He 
seldom makes speeches, but is one of the most untiring workers 
in the Senate ; and even the foul breath of slander has never 
dared to sully by the slightest whisper, his pure and immaculate 
fame. 



WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW. 




c.TpjEV. WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW, the 
patriotic and heroic journalist, Governor, and Senator 



of Eastern Tennessee, was born in Wythe County, 
Virginia, on the 29th of August, 1805. lie was the 
eldest son of Joseph A. Brownlow, a native of Rockbridge 
Count}'', Virginia, who was characterized by his old associates 
and friends (among them General Sam. Houston), as possessing 
good sense, great independence, and sterling integrity. He was 
also a private in a Tennessee company during the " War of 
1812," and two of his brothers were engaged in the battle at 
fforseshoe, under General Jackson, while two other brothers 
were officers in the American Navy, and died in the service. 
Joseph Brownlow died in Sullivan County, East Tennessee, in 
1816, leaving his widow, Catharine Gannaway — a Virginian 
likewise — burdened with the care of five children, three sons 
and two daughters, all of whom are now dead, except the sub- 
ject of our sketch. In less than three months from the time 
of her husband's demise, she also died, and the children were 
left to the charity of relatives and friends. Young William, 
now in his eleventh year, was taken by his mother's family, by 
whom he was brought up to hard labor, until he was eighteen 
years old, when he removed to Abingdon, Virginia, where he 

commenced an apprenticeship as a house carpenter. 
442 



WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW. 443 

Of course, his education, under the unfavorable circumstances 
of his earlier years, was imperfect and irregular, " even," as he 
says, "in those branches taught in the common schools of the 
country." As soon, therefore, as he had acquired his trade, he 
diligently set to work to obtain the means whereby to improve 
his mind, by going to school. Entering the Methodist ministry 
in 1826, he was for ten years a faithful and hard-worked itine- 
rant preacher, availing himself, meanwhile, of every opportu- 
nity of study and improving his defective education, especially 
in the English branches. In 1832, he was chosen by the Ilolston 
Annual Conference as a delegate to the General Conference of 
the Methodist Church held in Philadelphia; and, during the 
same year, travelled a circuit in South Carolina, having ap- 
pointments in the districts of Pickens and Anderson, and also 
in Franklin County, Georgia. Nullification was then raging 
in South Carolina, and men of all professions took sides, either 
in favor of the General Government, or of the South Carolina 
Ordinance of Disunion. Anderson District, which was one of 
Mr. Brownlow's appointments, was the residence of the arch- 
nullifier, John C. Calhoun, and the itinerant parson, living in 
such an atmosphere of excitement, and ever prone to give fear- 
less expression to his own political convictions, soon found 
himself drawn conspicuously into the controversy. Ilis stout 
defence of the Federal Government brought down upon him a 
storm of opposition so fierce that he felt obliged, in vindication 
of his position, to publish a pamphlet, in which he fully defined 
his principles on that particular question. 

About the same time, also, he became engaged in a contro- 
versy with a clergyman of another denomination relative to the 
position of tha Methodists with regard to slavery, and published 
in a pam})hlet the following prophetic extract, expressing the 
sentiments he has ever since maintained : — " I have paid some 



441 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

attention to tliis subject (slavery), yoimg as I am, because it is, 
one day or otliur, to shake this Government to its very founda- 
tion. 1 expect to live to see that day, and not to be an old man 
at that. The tariff question now threatens the overthrow of 
the Government ; but the slavery question is one to be dreaded. 
"While I shall advocate the owning of 'men, women, and chil- 
dren/ as you say our ' Discipline' styles slaves, I shall, if I am 
living when the battle comes, stand by my Government and the 
Union formed by our fathers, as Mr. Wesley stood by the 
British Government, of which he was a loyal subject." Nobly 
has Mr. Brownlow's subsequent career performed this promise 
of his earlier years ! 

Mr. Brownlow began bis political career in Tennessee, iu 
1828, by espousing, as he says, " the cause of John Qumcy 
Adams as against Andrew Jackson. The latter I regard as 
having been a true patriot and a sincere lover of his country. 
The former I admired because he was a learned statesman, of 
pure moral and private character, and because I regarded him 
as a Federalist^ representing my political opinions. I have all 
m\' life long been a Ftderal Wliig of the Washintjton and Alex- 
ander JIamiUon school. I am the advocate of a concentrated 
Federal Government, or of a strong central Government, able to 
maintain its dignity, to assert its authority, and to crush out 
any rebellion that may be inaugurated. I have never been a 
sectional, but at all times a national man, supporting men ibr the 
presidency and vice-presidency without any regard on which 
side of Mason and Dixon's Line they were born, or resided at 
the time of their nomination. In a word, I am, as I have 
ever been, an ardent Whig, and Clay and Webster have ever 
been my standards of political orthodoxy. With the breaking 
up of old parties, I have merged every thing into the great 

question of the ' Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement 
23 



WILLIAM GANN^AWAY BROWNLOW. 445 

of the l;n\:J.' Hence, I am an unconditional Union man, and 
advocate the preservation of the Union at tlie expense of all 
other considerations." 

About 1837, he became the editor of the "Knoxville (Tenn.) 
Whi(/" a political newspaper which obtained a larger circula- 
tion than anj other similar paper in the State, and even larger 
than all the papers in East Tennessee together. From the 
vigorous and defiant style of his articles in this sheet, as well 
as of his public speeches, he obtained a national reputation 
under the sobnqvei of the " Fighting Parson." He was also 
actively engaged in all the religious and political controversies 
of the day, and, amid these varied labors, found time to write 
several books, the principal of which is entitled '' The Iron 
Wheel Examined, and the False Spokes Extracted," being a 
vindication of the Methodist Church against the attacks of Rev. 
J. R. Graves, of Nashville. It was published by the Southern 
Methodist Book Concern, at the earnest solicitation of leading 
members of the denomination, and " is," to use his own words, 
" a work of great severity, but was written in reply to one of 
still greater severity." 

In September, 1858, Parson Brownlow held a public debate 
at Philadelphia, with Rev. Abram Payne, of New York, in 
which he defended the institution of Slavery as it existed in 
the South. This discussion was afterward published in Phila- 
delphia under the title of " Ought American Slavery to be 
Perpetuated? " 

From the beginning of the Secession movement in 1860, 
Brownlow, as was to be expected from his life-long sentiments, 
boldly advocated, in his paper, unconditional adherence to the 
Union, for the reason, among others, that it was the best safe- 
guard to southern institutions. This course subjected him to 
much obloquy and persecution after the secession of Tennessee, 



446 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and on the 24th of October, 1861, he published the last number 
of the Whig issued under the Slaveocratic Government. In this 
closing number, he announced his intention not to re-issue his 
journal until after the State had been cleared of rebels; and he 
also expressed his expectation of a hurried removal and lengthy 
imprisonment at their hands. Avowing his determination 
never to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, he 
asserted that he would " submit to imprisonment for life, or die 
at the end of a rope," before he would make any humiliating 
concession to any power on earth. " I shall go to jail," said 
he, "as John Eogers went to the stake — for my principles. 
I shall go, because I have failed to recognize the hand of God 
in the breaking up of the American Government, and the 
inauguration of the most wicked, cruel, unnatural, and un- 
called-for war ever recorded in history. * * I am proud of 
my position and of my principles, and shall leave them to my 
children as a legacy far more valuable than a princely fortune, 
had I the latter to bestow." 

Remaining, for awhile, unmolested at Knoxville, he was 
finally taken away by his friends, and remained in concealment 
for some time in the mountains of Tennessee, until he was in- 
duced, by the offer of a safe escort out of the State to the 
North, to appear at the rebel military headquarters ^t Knox- 
ville. Upon his arrival there, December 6th, 1861, he waa 
arrested, on a civil process, for treason, and thrown into jail. 
After a month's confinement, he was released, only to be im- 
mediately re-arrested by military authority, and was kept under 
guard in his own house, expecting death, and suffering from 
severe illness, till March 3d, 1862. He was then sent, under 
escort, toward the Union lines at Nashville, which he finally 
entered on the 15th, having been detained ten days by the 
guerrilla force of Colonel Morgan. Subsequently he made an 



WILLIAM GANNAWAT BROWNLOW. 447 

exteDsive and successful tour of the Northern States, addressing 
large audiences in all the principal cities, and wrote an auto- 
biographical work, entitled, " Sketches of the Rise, Progress, 
and Decline of Secession, with a Narrative of Personal Adven- 
ture among the Rebels," which was published in Philadelphia. 
This work, popularly known as " Parson Brownlow's Book," 
had an extensive sale. During the month of November, 1862, 
Mr. Brownlow, having been joined by his family, who had also 
been expelled from Knoxville, took up his residence at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, for a time. After the battle of Murfreesboro, he 
removed, with his family, to Nashville, Tennessee, there to 
await the earliest opportunity of returning to Knoxville, and 
re-establishing The Whig^ for which purpose he had received 
considerable "material aid" during his tour in the Northern 
States. In September, 1863, the capture of that city afforded 
him the long-desired chance to return to his old home, and 
before leaving Nashville, he, on the 7th of September, 1863, 
issued his prospectus for the Knoxville Whig, under the new and 
euphonious title of ^^Broionlow^s Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ven- 
tilator!'^ Its first number was announced to be issued on the 
anniversary of the day when his " paper was crushed out by 
the God-forsaken mob at Knoxville, called the Confederate 
authorities," and his purpose was, as he said, "to commence 
with the rebellion where the traitors had forced him to leave 
off." He promised, in the editorial conduct of the paper, to 
" forget Whigs, Democrats, Know Nothings, and Republicans, 
and remember only the Government and the preservation of 
the Federal Union — as richly worth all the sacrifices of blood 
and treasure their preservation may cost — even to the exter- 
mination of the present race of men, and the consumption of 
all the means of the present age." 

He baa conducted his paper, from that time to the present, 



448 MEX OF OUR DAY. 

with a fearlessness and power of denunciation, which lias made 
it a terror to the rebels of Tennessee ; and their hatred of him 
has manifested itself by constant acts of malignity. He has, 
driven in part by his more fully developed convictions, and in 
part by the irresistible logic of events, come more and more 
fully upon the Republican platform, till to-day he is as thorough 
a Radical as any man in the West. He has advocated both in 
his paper and in his place in the Senate, every great measure 
which is regarded as cardinal by the Republican party, and 
though his health is very feeble, he never abates one jot of the 
intensity of his invective against the Rebels. 

In 1865, when Tennessee returned to the Union, Mr. Brown- 
low was elected, by an overwhelming majority, Governor of 
the State, and in 1867, re-elected to the same high office. He 
has brought to his duties his unimpeachable honesty, his fear- 
less and unflinching integrity, and his remarkable executive 
ability, and has been one of the best governors the State has 
ever had. The legislature of 1867 elected him to the United 
States Senate, for the six years commencing March 4th, 186.^. 

Of himself, Parson Brownlow says (in 1862) : " I have been 
a laboring man all my life long, and have acted upon the Scrip- 
tural maxim of eating my bread in the sweat of my brow. 
Though a Southern man in feeling and principle, I do not think 
it degrading to a man to labor, as do most Southern disunionists. 
"Whether East or West, North or South, I recognize the dignity 
of labor, and look forward to a day, not very far distant, when 
educated labor will be the salvation of this vast country I * * * 
I am known throughout the length and breadth of the land as 
the 'Fighting Parson,' while I may say, without incurring 
the charge of egotism, that no man is more peaceable, as my 
neighbors will testify. Always poor, and always oppressed 
with security debts, few men in my section and of my limited 
means have given away more in the course of each year to 



WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW. 449 

charitable objects, I have never been arraigned in the ctiurcb 
for immorality. I never played a card. I never was a pro- 
fane swearer. I never drank a dram of liquor, until within a 
few years, when it was taken as a medicine. I never had a cigar 
or a chew of tobacco in my mouth. I never was in attendance 
at a theatre. I never attended a horse-race, and never witnessed 
their running save on the fair grounds of my own county. I 
never courted but one woman ; and her I married. 

" I am about six feet high, and have weighed as high as one 
hundred and seventy-five pounds, — have had as fine a constitu- 
tion as g,ny man need desire. I have very few grey hairs in my 
head, and although rather hard-favored than otherwise, I will 
pass for a man of forty years.* I have had as strong a voice as 
any man in East Tennessee, where I have resided for the last 
thirty years, and have a family of seven children." 

We may add that Mr. Brownlow's earnestness of convictions, 
and fearlessness in their avowal, is equalled only by the intensi- 
ty of the language which he employs to express his sentiments. 
There is nothing " mealy-mouthed" about him — men and things 
are called by their right names — and words are applied with a 
" squareness " and force which is peculiarly the " Parson's own," 

He has seemed, for the last three or four years, to live by sheer 
force of his imperious will. His enemies, political and other, 
have often congratulated themselves that he was about to die ; but 
the old man declares that he "will outlive them, and rejoice that 
a righteous God has sent them to perdition." 

*The ten years which have passed since Parson Brownlow wrote this, and 
his im])aired health, have greatly changed liis appearance. He is no more 
hard-favored than he was then, but he looks full as old as he is, viz., si.xty-seven. 

29 



JAMES HARLAN. 




;0N. JAMES HAELAN, late Secretary of the Interior, 
and now United States Senator from Iowa, was born in 
Clark county, Illinois, August 26tli, 1820. When he 
was three years of age his parents removed to Indiana, 
where he was employed during his minority in assisting his 
father upon the farm. His early advantages of education were 
small but they were improved to the utmost. In the year 1841, 
he entered the preparatory department of Asbury University, 
then under the presidency of the present Bishop Simpson. 
He graduated from the university with honor, in 18-15, having 
paid his way by teaching, at intervals, during his college course. 
In the winter of 1815-6, he was elected professor of lan- 
guages in Iowa City college, and removed thither. He soon 
became popular in the city and State, and in 1817 was elected 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. His competitor 
for this office was Hon. Charles Mason, a distingiiished gradu- 
ate of West Point, who had served as Chief Justice of the 
Federal court of Iowa Territory during the whole period of its 
existence, a gentleman of great ability and unblemished reputa- 
tion, and the nominee of the Democratic party, who had been, 
and subsequently were, the dominant party in the State. His 
election over such a competitor was highly creditable to him, 
especially as he had been a resident of the State but two years, 
450 



JAMES HARLAN. 451 

In 1848, Mr. Harlan was superseded by Thomas H. Benton, 
Jr., who was reported by the canvassing officers elected by 
seventeen majority. The count was subsequently conceded 
to have been fraudulent, though Mr. Benton was not cognizant 
of the fraud. Mr. Harlan had been for some time engaged in 
the study of law, in his intervals of leisure, and now applied 
himself to it more closely, and was admitted to the bar in 1848. 
He continued the practice of his profession for five years, and 
was eminently successfal in it. During this period (in 1849) 
he was nominated by his party for governor, but not being of 
the constitutional age for that office, he declined the nomination. 

In 1853, he was elected, by the annual conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, President of the Mount Pleasant 
Collegiate Institute, which during the winter following was 
re-organized under an amended charter as a university, and 
Mr. Harlan was retained in the presidency. His energy and 
industry found full scope in this position, and for the next two 
years the university grew and prospered. 

On the 6th of January, 1855, without any candidacy, or even 
knowledge of his nomination, Mr. Harlan was elected by the 
Legislature, United States Senator from Iowa, for the six years 
commencing March 4th, 1855. As a pretended informality in 
this election was made the occasion of his being unseated by 
the Democratic majority in the United States Senate, two years 
later, it may be well to give a somewhat more detailed account 
of this election. In accordance with the custom and the Con- 
stitution of Iowa, the Senate and House of Eepiesenatives of 
the Iowa Legislature met, in joint session, soon after the first 
of January, 1855, to elect a Senator and judges. The two 
parties were nearly balanced in both houses, and at first there 
was no ebction ; they adjourned from day to day, when the 
Democrats found that a majority could be obtained on joint 



452 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ballot for Mr, Ilarlan as Senator, and to prevent tLis, the 
Democratic members of the State Senate withdrew, intending 
thereby to render an election void. But as the Democratic 
members of the House remained, there was a quorum of the 
joint session present, and Mr. Ilarlan was elected by a clear 
majority of both houses. 

On his election to the Senate, Mr. Harlan resigned the 
presidency of the university, but accepted the professorship of 
political economy and international law, to which he was 
immediately elected, and which he still holds. 

He took his seat in the United States Senate, December 3d, 
1855, and his first formal speech was made on the 27th of 
March, 1856, on the question of the admission of Kansas. It 
was pronounced at the time, by both friends and foes, the ablest 
argument on that side of the question delivered during the pro- 
tracted debate. Later in the session, on the occasion of his 
presenting the memorial of James H. Lane, praying the accept- 
ance of the petition of the members of the Kansas territoria*! 
Legislature, for the admission of their territory into the Union 
as a State, he administered a most scathing rebuke to the 
Democratic majority in the Senate for their tyrannical and 
oppressive course in regard to Kansas. The Republicans at 
this time numbered but a baker's dozen in the Senate, and it 
had been the fashion with the Democratic majority to refuse 
intercourse, and a place on the committees, to som-e of them on 
the ground that they were outside of any healthy political 
organization. They had been disposing, as they hoped, forever, 
of the Republican leader in the Senate (Mr. Sumner), by the 
use of the bludgeon, and they were greatly enraged at the 
castigation which they now received from another member 
of the little band, and resolved to rid themselves of him also. 
For this purpose, nursing their wrath to keep it warm, they 



JAMES HARLATT. 453 

called up the action of the Democrats of the Iowa Senate 
to which we have already alluded, and early in the second 
session of the Thirty-fourth Congress, introduced a resolution 
that " James Harlan is not entitled to his seat as a Senator from 
Iowa." The resolution was fiercely debated, but the majority, 
confident in their strength, passed it by a full party vote on the 
12th of January, 1857. 

Their triumph was short. Immediately on the passage of 
the resolution Mr. Harlan left Washington for Iowa City, 
where the State Legislature, now unmistakably Republican, was 
in session; he arrived there on Friday evening, January 16th. 
On the next day, Saturday, he was re-elected by both houses 
to the Senate, spent a few days at his home in Mount Pleasant, 
returned to Washington, was re-swoun, and resumed his seat on 
the 29th of January. The next session of Congress brought 
valuable additions to the strength of the Republican party in 
the Senate, but it had no truer member than Mr. Harlan, and 
his fearlessness, conscientiousness, industry, integrity, and 
ability as a debater, made him an acknowledged leader in it. 
In 1861, he was re-elected for the term ending March 4th, 1867, 
without a'dissenting voice in his party at home. 

He was a member of the Peace Congress in 1861, but after 
seeing the niembers sent from the slave States, and witnessing 
the election of Ex-President John Tyler presiding officer, 
he predicted that its deliberations would end in a miserablo 
failure. 

During the whole course of the war, he was the earnest sup- 
porter of President Lincoln, whose personal friendship he en- 
joyed ; and through all the light and gloom of that dark period, 
his faith in the right never faltered, and his a-^tivity and zeal 
were not checked by depressing emotions. He and his accom 
plished and gifted wife were throughout the war among the 



454 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

most active helpers in the work of the Sanitary and Christian 
Commissions^ ministering in person to the wounded, and aiding, 
with pen and purse, the efforts for their welfare. 

As a Senator, as the published debates of Congress show, he 
argued and elucidated with great clearness and conclusiveness 
every phase of the question of slavery and emancipation, in 
all their social, legal and economic ramifications — the exclusion 
of slavery from the territories — the constitutional means of 
restriction — climatic influences on the races, white and black — 
the necessity or propriety of colonization — and the effects of 
emancipation on the institutions of the country North and 
South. 

He was the earnest advocate of the early construction of the 
Pacific Eailroad — had made himself, by a careful examination, 
master of the whole subject — was consequently appointed a 
member of the " Senate Committee on the Pacific Eailroad ;" 
and when the two bodies differed as to the details of the bill, he 
was made chairman of the committee of conference of the two 
houses, and did more than any other living man to reconcile 
conflicting views on the amended bill which afterwards became 
the law of the land. 

As chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, he exerted 
a controlling influence in shaping the policy of the Government 
in the disposition of the public domain, so as to aid in the 
construction of railroads, and the improvement of other avenues 
of intercourse, as well as to advance the individual interests of 
the frontier settler, by facilitating his acquisition of a landed 
estate, and also by securing a permanent fund for the support 
of common schools for the masses, and other institutions of 
learning. Under his guidance the laws for the survey, sale, 
and pre-emption of the public lands were harmonized, and the 
homestead bil so modified, as to reader it a practical and 



JAMES HARLAISr. 455 

beneficent measure for tlie indigent settler, and at the same 
time but slightly, if at all, detrimental to the public treasury. 
And on this as well as that other great national measure, the 
Pacific Railroad bill, above mentioned, when the two houses 
disagreed as to details, Mr. Harlan was selected by the Presi- 
dent of the Senate, to act as chairman of the committee of 
conference. 

His thorough acquaintance with the land laws, his clear 
perception of the principles of justice and equity which should 
control in their administration, and his unwearied industry and 
care in the examination of all claims presented to Congress 
growing out of the disposition of the public lands to private 
citizens, corporations, or States — caused him to be regarded 
almost in the light of an oracle, by his compeers in the Senate, 
whenever any of these claims were pending ; his statements, of 
fact were never disputed, and his judgment almost always 
followed. 

Immediately after he was placed upon the Senate Committee 
on Indian Affairs, it became manifest that he had made himself 
master of that whole subject in all of its details. He conse- 
quently exercised a leading influence on the legislation of 
Congress affecting our intercourse with these children of the 
forest; humanity and justice to them, as well as the safety of 
the frontier settlements from savage warfare, v/ith him were cardi- 
nal elements, to guide him in shaping the policy of the Govern- 
ment. The effect of the repeal, over Mr. Harlan's earnest protest, 
of the beneficent features of the Indian intercourse laws, under 
the lead of Senator Hunter, which, all admit, laid the foundation 
for our recent Indian wars, furnishes a marked illustration of 
the safety of his counsels in these affairs. 

As a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, he waa 
the earnest advocate of every measure calculated to develop 



45G MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and advance tbat great national interest, and prepared the only 
report, marked by scientific researcli, made on tbat subject by 
the Senate Committee during tbe last ten years. He gave bis 
earnest support to tbe Agricultural College bill, tbougb in con- 
flict witb bis views of tbe proper policy for tbe disposition of 
tbe public lands, because be regarded it as tbe only opportu- 
nity for laying firmly tbe foundation for tbese nurseries of 
scientifiG agriculture, wbicb must prove of vast consequence 
for good, to tbe wbole people of tbis continent, and tbe toiling 
millions of tbe old world. 

Tbougb never unjust or illiberal toward tbe older and more 
powerful members of tbe Union, be bas ever been tbe vigilant 
guardian of tbe peculiar interests of tbe new States, including 
his own. He bas also been a no less vigilant guardian of the 
public treasury, tbougb never lending himself to niggardly and 
parsimonious measures. 

His inauguration of tbe proposition for tbe construction of a 
ship canal from tbe northern lakes to tbe waters of the 
Mississippi (see Congress. Globe, 2d session, 36 Congress, Part 
I.) ; bis opposition to legislation on tbe Sabbath ; bis introduc- 
tion of resolutions on fasting and prayer ; his propositions for 
reform in the chaplain service of tbe army and navy ; in aid of 
foreign emigration; the reconstruction of the insurrectionary 
States ; the reclamation of tbe Colorado desert ; the improvement 
of navigation of lakes and rivers ; the application of meteorolo- 
gical observations in aid of agriculture to land as well as sea ; 
for tbe support of scientific explorations and kindred measures ; 
for reform in criminal justice in the District of Columbia and 
in the territories ; and bis remarks on such subjects as tbe bank- 
rupt bill ; tbe Kentucky Volunteers bill; tbe bill to re-organize 
the Court of Claims ; on the resolution relating to Floyd's accept- 
ances ; on the bill to indemnify the President ; on tbe couscri > 



JAMES HARLAN. 457 

tion bill ; on the conditions of release of State prisoners ; on the 
disqualification of color in carrying the mails ; on the organiza- 
tion of territories; on amendment to the Constitution; on the 
district registration IdIII ; on bill to establish Freedmen's Bureau; 
on inter-continental telegraph ; on bill providing bail in certain 
eases of military arrests ; on the construction of railroads ; on 
education in the District of Columbia for white and colored 
children ; on the Income Tax bill ; altogether furnish an indica- 
tion of the range of his acquirements, the tendency of his 
thoughts, and the breadth of his views, which cannot otherwise 
be given in a sketch necessarily so brief as to exclude copious 
extracts from published debates. 

Among his numerous eloquent and elaborate speeches in the 
Senate, we have only room for a brief abstract of one, which 
must serve as a sample of the whole. It is that delivered in 
reply to Senator Hunter of Virginia, during the winter of 1860- 
61, immediately preceding the first overt acts of the rebellion. 
This speech was characteristic in clearness, method, directness, 
force, and conclusiveness, and was regarded, by his associates in 
the Senate, as the great speech of the session. In the commence- 
ment, he examined and exposed, in their order, every pretext 
for secession, and proceeded to charge upon the authors of the 
then incipient rebellion, with unsurpassed vigor and force, that 
the loss of political power was their real grievance. lie indi- 
cated the impossibility of any compromise, on the terms proposed 
by the southern leaders, without dishonor, and pointed out the 
means of an adjustment alike honorable to the South and the 
North, requiring no retraction of principle on the part of any 
one, by admitting the territories into the Union as States. He 
warned the South against a resort to an arbitrament of the 
Bword ; predicted the impossibility of their sec iring a division 
of the States of the northwest from the Middle and New Eng- 



458 MEN OF OUR DAY, 

land States the certainty and comparative dispatch with which 
an armed rebellion would be crushed, and concluded with a 
most powerful appeal to these conspixators not to plunge the 
country into such a sea of blood. Upon the conclusion of this 
speech four fifths of the Union Senators crowded around to con- 
gratulate him, and a state of excitement prevailed on the floor 
of the Senate for some moments, such as had seldom if ever 
before been witnessed in that body. 

He was selected by the Union members of the House and 
Senate as a member of the Union Congressional committee for 
the management of the presidential campaign of 186-i. Being 
the only member of the committee on the part of the Senate 
who devoted his whole time to this work, he became the active 
organ of the committee — organized an immense working force, 
regulated its finances with ability and unimpeachable fidelity, 
employed a large number of presses in Washington, Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, and New York, in printing reading matter 
for the masses, which resulted in the distribution of many mil- 
lions of documents among the people at home, and in all 
our great armies. To his labors the country was, doubtless, 
largely indebted, for the triumphant success of the Union can- 
didates. 

With the foregoing record, it is not remarkable that he 
should have been selected by that illustrious statesman and 
patriot, Abraham Lincoln, immediately preceding his lamented 
death, for the distinguished office of Secretary of the Interior. 

Mr. Harlan's nomination was unanimously confirmed by the 
body of which he was at the time an honored m.ember, without 
the usual reference to a committee. But, immediately after the 
accession of Mr. Johnson to the presidency, with a delicacy 
and sense of propriety worthy of imitation, he tendered his 
declination of this high office. This not being accepted, Mr. 



JAMES HARLAN. 459 

Harlan did not deem it proper, in the disturbed condition of 
public affairs, to make it peremptory, and, in accordance with 
the President's expressed desire, and the demands of the national 
welfare, resigned his seat in the Senate, and entered on the dis- 
charge of the duties of the position, May 15th, 1865. Mr 
Harlan's great familiarity with the laws pertaining to the de- 
partment of which he had now become the leading spirit, not 
only enabled him fully to meet public expectation in the admin- 
istration of its affairs, but to establish it upon a basis of useful- 
ness, hitherto unknown in its history. 

The fact becoming manifest to the people of Iowa, that Mr. 
Harlan could not long remain as a confidential adviser of Presi- 
dent Johnson, on account of the early and repeated aberrations of 
the latter from the cardinal principles of the political party by 
whom he had been elected to the vice presidency, and not being 
disposed to dispense with the services of so faithful a public ser- 
vant, he was re-elected by the Legislature of 1866, to his old 
seat in the United States Senate. The following August he 
resigned the office of Secretary of the Interior, and re-entered 
the Senate Chamber on the 4th of March, 1867, with the full 
period of six years before him. He was immediately appointed 
chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, also 
chairman of the joint committee of the two Houses of Con- 
gress to audit expenses of executive mansion, and was assigned 
to membership on the important committees of Foreign Rela- 
tions, Pacific railroad, and Post Offices, and Post roads, respec- 
tively. 

Mr. Harlan is still (1872) a member of the Senate, though his 
term expires March 3rd, 1873, and lion. James F. Wilson, an able 
statesman of the same party, lias been elected his successor. 

Mr. Harlan's early record was so pure and creditable to him, 
that it is hardly probable that h*e has done anything to mar 



460 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

it ; yet it is very difficult for a Senator or Representative in Con- 
gress who pushes forward the great land jobbing grants to the 
Western Railroads to avoid a suspicion of having shared in the 
profits thus ensured to his clients. Mr. Harlan has been accused, 
and with great vehemence, of participating in the benefits of 
those land-grants, but he has defended himself with a good deal 
of ability, and some asperity, and his innocence is to be pre- 
eumed. That these charges defeated his re-election is asserted, 
and is probable, but their truth is not proved thereby. 



HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NEW YORK. 




HEN, some years since, the Representative of the twenty- 
first Congressional District of New York was declared, by 
a majority of his peers, to have been guilty of corruption, 
and to be unworthy of a seat with them, the Republican 
voters of that district, one of the most intelligent and refined 
in the state, looked about them for a man of integrity and 
purity of character who should fully represent their sentiments 
in the national legislature. Such a man they found speedily ; 
a young man but little more than thirty years of age, but of 
highly cultivated intellect, staunch integrity, an eminent advo- 
cate, and at that time mayor of Utica, the chief city of the 
district. They elected him ; and, young as he was, he speedily 
made his mark, in three Congresses of remarkable ability, 
taking a position with the foremost, in the fervor of his patriot- 
ism, the clearness of his perceptions, the soundness of his judg- 
ment, and his eloquence as a debater, and at the close of his six 
years' service in the House of Representatives, though re-elected 
from his district, he was transferred by the Legislature of hia 
native State, to a seat in the United States Senate, previously 
occupied by one of the most eminent jurists of New York. 

RoscoE CoNKLiNG (for it is he of whom we speak), was born 
at Albany, New York, October 30, 1829 ; he was a younger son 

of Hon. Alfred Conkling, a member of the XVIIth Congress, 

461 



462 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

nnd subsequently judge of tlie United States District Court, for 
the Northern District of New York, for twenty-seven years, 
and in 1852-5, United States minister to Mexico ; he received a 
very thorough academic education in the Albany academy, and 
in 1846, removed to Utica, where he studied and practiced law, 
and when but twenty-one years of age, was appointed district 
attorney for Oneida county. In 1858, he was elected mayor 
of Utica, by a heavy majority. Duimg the autumn of the same 
year, he was nominated for Congress from the twenty-first 
district, to succeed 0. B. Matteson. He was carried in by a 
large majority, and though the youngest member of the House, 
attained speedily to a very prominent position in that body, 
as a fearless, eloquent, and accomplished debater. He was re- 
elected in 1860, and still added to his reputation. He was 
chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, and on a 
Bankrupt Law. In 1862, New York was so far faithless to her 
principles as to elect a Democratic Administration, Horatio 
Seymour, Mr. Conkling's brother-in-law, being chosen governor ; 
and a professed war Democrat, but real Copperhead, elected 
to Congress from the twenty-first district to the XXXVIIIth 
Congress. But the people of that district were dissatisfied, and, 
in 186-1, they re-elected Mr. Conkling by a heavier majority 
than ever before. During the two years that he was out of 
Congress, Mr. Conkling was requested by the attorney-general 
to aid in the prosecution of some gross frauds which had been 
committed in that district, in regard to the enlistments ard 
bounties to soldiers. He entered upon the work with his usual 
ardor and zeal, and succeeded in unearthing a most astounding 
system of frauds. By this act, he rendered a great service to 
the nation, for which he received the thanks of the War Depart- 
ment, but he had incurred the hostility of the " Ring," which 
determined thenceforward to crush him. The opportunity did 



HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 465 

not occur until the summer of 1866, when, as be was nominated 
again for Congress, a man of large wealth, previously a Republi 
can, determined to run in opposition to him, and to defeat him, 
if it could be accomplished by money. Mr. Conkling at once 
announced his intention to canvass the district in person, and 
did so, speaking in every village and town of the county, and 
was reelected by an increased majority. The Republican 
Legislature which met in January, 1867, elected Mr. Conkling 
United States Senator for six years, from March 4, 1867, to 
succeed Hon. Ira Harris. 

A single passage from one of Mr. Conkling's speeches, will 
serve to show his earnestness, the intensity of his convictions, 
and the ability with which he presents them. The occasion was 
this; Tennessee had been restored to the Union, and her loyal 
Representatives and one Senator sworn in. The other Senator, 
Judge Patterson, a son-in-law of President Johnson, was, it was 
thought, from the fact of his having, though a Union man, held 
office under the rebel government, unable to take the test oath 
prescribed for all Senators and Representatives, and the Senate 
had passed a joint resolution to omit in his case, from the test 
oath, these words : " That I have neither sought nor accepted, 
nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, 
under any authority, or pretended authority, in hostility to the 
United States." This resolution was immediately sent to the 
House of Representatives for their consideration. Messrs. May 
nard and Taylor of Tennessee advocated it, and Mr. Stokes, 
also of Tennessee, and Mr. Conkling of New York, opposed it. 
The closing passage of Mr. Conkling's speech was as follows: 

" We are asked to drive a plough-share over the very 
found-'tion of our position ; to break down and destroy the 
Dulwark by which we may secure the results of a great war and 
a great history, by which we may preserve from defilement thia 



464 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

place, wTiere alone in our organism the people never lose their 
supremacy, except by the recreancy of their Kepresentatives; a 
bulwark without which we may not save our Government from 
disintegration and disgrace. If we do this act, it will be a 
precedent which will carry fatality in its train. From Jefferson 
Davis, to the meanest tool of despotism and treason, every rebel 
may come here, and we shall have no reason to assign against 
his admission, except the arbitrary reason of numbers. I move, 
sir, that the joint resolution be laid on the table." It ivas laid 
on the table, by a vote of eighty-eight to thirty-one ; and the 
Bame day, Judge Patterson, having discovered that he could 
take the test oath, was sworn in by the Vice-President, and the 
joint resolution laid over forever. 

Sudden and rapid promotion to the highest places in the peo- 
ple's gift has before now turned the heads of many otherwise 
estimable men, and if Mr. Conkling has failed to fulfil in all 
respects the promise of his earlier years in Congress, as very 
many of his former friends believe, it is doubtless due in part to 
his rapid promotion, in part to the grateful but not always 
healthful influence of the profuse flattery he has received, and 
to the overweening sense of his own gifts, talents and power, 
which have been thus bred in him. Mr. Conkling is a man of 
remarkably fine appearance, and a great favorite of the ladies; 
he is a man of scholarly tastes and of considerable eloquence; 
but since he has been in the Senate, he has lost that modesty 
which so well became him, and by his imperious and dictatorial 
manner, and his fierce invective against men who, to say the least, 
were in all respects his peers, he has lost influence in the nation, 
and has recalled the traditions of the old days when the slave 
holder's whip cracked ominously in the Senate against all who 
failed to do its behests. It grieves us to say such things of a man 
of so much real ability as Mr. Conkling; and we cannot but 



HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 465 

hope that ia the coming years he may see that the power which 
is founded on love and respect is infinitely greater than that 
which is reared on force and brutality, and may be led to unite, 
as he certainly does not now, the suaviter in modo to the fortiter 
in re. 



30 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 



fOHN ALEXANDER LOGAN, who has been styled " the 
Murat of the Union army," was born near the present town 
of Murphysboro, Jackson county, in Illinois, on the 9th 
of February, 1826. His father. Dr. John Logan, came 
from Ireland to Illinois, in 1823 ; his mother, Elizabeth Jenkins, 
was a Tennessean, and John was the eldest of their family of 
eleven children. Schools were scarce in Illinois, during hia 
boyhood, so that he was indebted for most of his early education 
to his father, or to such itinerant teachers as chanced to visit 
the new settlement — and it was not until 1840, that he attended 
an academy, bearing the pretentious title of " Shiloh college." 
At the commencement of the Mexican war, young Logan, then 
in his twentieth year, volunteered, and was chosen lieutenant in 
a company of the first Illinois volunteers ; bearing a conspicuous 
part in the service of the regiment, of which, for a portion of 
the time, he was adjutant. Returning home in October, 1848, 
he commenced the study of law in the office of his uncle, 
Alexander M. Jenkins, formerly lieutenant-governor of Illinois, 
and while thus employed, was elected, in November, 1849, clerk 
of his native county, holding the office until 1850. During that 
year, he attended a course of law studies at Louisville, receiving 
his diploma in 1851, and commencing the practice of his pro- 
fession with his uncle. His practical mind, pleasing address, 
466 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 467 

and rare abilities as a public speaker, speedily rendered him a 
general favorite, and, in 1852, he was elected prosecuting attor- 
ney of the then third judicial district, and established his resi- 
dence at Benton, Illinois. During the autumn of the same 
year, he was elected to represent Jackson and Franklin 
counties, in the State Legislature ; married in 1856 ; was chosen 
presidential elector for the ninth Congressional district, in May, 
1856, and in the following fall was re-elected to the Legislature. 
In 1858, the Democracy of the ninth Congressional district 
elected him to Congress by a large majority, and re-elected him, 
again, in 1860. At the first intimation of coming trouble, he 
boldly asserted that, although he thought and hoped that Mr. 
Lincoln would not be elected to the presidency ; yet, if he were, 
he would " shoulder his musket to have him inaugurated." 
During the winter of 1860, his county having been thrown out 
of his old district and added to another, he removed his resi- 
dence to Marion, Williamson county, in order that he might 
still be in his district. 

In July, 1861, during the extra session of Congress, Mr. 
Logan, fired with the enthusiasm of the hour, left his seat, over- 
took the troops which were marching out of Washington to 
meet the enemy, joined himself to Colonel Richardson's regi- 
ment, secured a musket and a place in the ranks, and, at the 
disastrous battle of Bull Run, fought with distinguished bravery, 
and was among the last to leave the field. Returning to his 
home, at Marion, in the latter part of August, he addressed hia 
fellow-citizens, on tlic 3d of September, announcing his intention 
to enter the service of the Government, "as a private, or in any 
capacity in which he could serve his country best, in defending 
the old blood-stained flag over every foot of soil in the United 
States." II is eloquence and high personal reputation rallied 
Mends and neighbors around him, and, on the 13th of Septem- 



4G8 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ber, 1861, the thirtj-first Illinois volunteers was organized, and 
he was chosen colonel. The regiment was attached to General 
McClernand's brigade ; and, seven weeks later, at Belmont, 
made its first fight, during which Colonel Logan had a horse 
shot under him, and his pistol, at his side, shattered by rebel 
bullets. He led the thirty-first, also, at Fort Henry, and, again, 
at Fort Donelson, where he received a very severs wound, 
which, aggravated by exposure, disabled him for some time 
from active service. Reporting, again, for duty to General 
Grant, at Pittsburgh Landing, he was shortly after, March 5th, 
1862, made brigadier-general of volunteers ; took a distinguished 
part in the movement against Corinth, in May, and, after the 
occupation of that place, guarded, with his brigade, the rail- 
road communications with Jackson, Tennessee, of which place 
he was subsequently given the command. 

In the summer of 1862, he was warmly urged by his numer- 
ous friends and admirers to become a candidate, again, for 
Congress, but declined in a letter of glowing patriotism, in 
which he said, — " I have entered the field to die, if need be, 
for this Government, and never expect to return to peaceful 
pursuits, until the object of this war of preservation has become 
a fact established." During Grant's Northern Mississippi cam- 
paign, 1862 and '63, Logan led his division, exhibiting great 
skill in the handling of troops, and was honored with a promo- 
tion as major-general of volunteers, dating from November 29th, 
1862. He was afterwards assigned to the command of the third 
division, seventeenth army corps, under General McPherson, 
and bore a part in the movement upon Yicksburg ; contributing 
to the victory at Port Gibson, and saving the day, by hia 
desperate personal bravery. May 12th, at the battle of Raymond, 
which General Grant designated as " one of the hardest small 
battles of the war ;" participated in the defeat and routmg of 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 4C3 

the rel)e1s at Jackson, May 14th, and in the battle of Cham- 
pion's Hill, May 16tb. 

At the siege of Yicksburg, he commanded McPherson'a 
centre, opposite Fort Hill, the key to the rebel works, and hia 
men made the assault after the explosion of the mine, June 25th. 
His column was the first to enter the surrendered city, on the 
4th of July, 1863, and he was made its military governor, Hia 
valor was fitly recognized in the presentation made to him, by 
the board of honor of the seventeenth army corps, of a gold 
medal, inscribed with the names of the nine battles m which he 
had participated. Having thoroughly inaugurated the adminis- 
tration of affairs at Vicksburg, he spent a part of the summer 
of 1863 in a visit to the North, frequently addressing large 
assemblages of his fellow-citizens, in speeches of fiery eloquence, 
and burning zeal and devotion to the cause of the Union. 

In November, 1863, he succeeded General Sherman in the com-' 
mand of the fifteenth army corps, spending the following win! or 
at Huntsville, Alabama ; joining, in May, 1864, the Grand 
Military Division of the Mississippi, which, under General 
Sherman, was preparing for its march into Georgia. He led 
the advance of the Army of the Tennessee in the movement at 
Resaca, taking part in the battle which followed, and, still 
moving on the right, met and repulsed Hardee's veterans at 
Dallas, on the 23d of May ; drove the enemy from three linea 
of works, at Kenesaw Mountain, and again, on the 27th of 
June, made a desperate assault against the impregnable face of 
Little Kenesaw. On the 22d of July, at the terrible battle of 
Peach Tree creek, Logan, fighting at one moment on one side of 
his works, and the next on the other, was informed of the death, 
in another part of the field, of the beloved General McPherson. 
Assuming the temporary command, Logan dashed impetuously 
from one end to the other of his hardly-pressed lines, shouting 



470 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

" McPherson and revenge !" His emotion communicated itself 
to the troops with the rapidity of electricity, and eight thousand 
rebel dead left upon the field, at nightfall, bore mute witness to 
their love for the fallen chief and the bravery of his successor. 
Conspicuous, again, at the obstinate battle of Ezra Chapel, 
July 28th, he and his troops co-operated in the remaining bat- 
tles of the campaign, until the fall of Atlanta, September 2d, 
when they went into summer- quarters. After a few months 
spent in stumping the Western States, during the presidential 
campaign of ISGi, General Logan rejoined his corps, at Savan- 
nah, Georgia, shared the fatigues and honors of Sherman's 
march through the Carolinas, and, after Johnston's surrender, 
marched to Alexandria, and participated with his brave veterans 
in the great review of the national armies at Washington, May 
23d, being advanced, on the same day, to the command of the 
Army of the Tennessee, upon the appointment of General 
Howard to other duties. 

In 1865, General Logan was appointed minister to Mexico, 
but declined the honor, and was elected to the XLth Congress, 
from the State at large, as a Republican, receiving two hundred 
and three thousand and forty-five votes, against one hundred 
and forty-seven thousand and fifty-eight, given for his Demo- 
cratic opponent. He took a prominent part, as one of the man- 
agers on tlie part of the House of Representatives, in the im- 
peachment trial of President Johnson. 

General Logan was re-elected as Congressman at large to the 
XLIst and to the XLIId Congresses, but in the winter of 1871 he 
was chosen by the Legislature of Illinois to succeed Richard 
Yates, as United States Senator from that State. The selection 
was hardly a wise one either for the State or the General him- 
self. In the house of Representatives, General Logan was per- 
fectly at home. His capacity for work, his fiery and somewhat 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 471 

stilted eloquence, and his power to influence the sympathies and 
emotions of his hearers, were thoroughly in place ; but in the 
Senate he was strangely out of his element by the side of his 
dignified and scholarly colleague, and though disposed to be 
active and laborious, he ran the risk of sinking to the position of 
one of the buffoons of the Senate, a fate which he certainly did 
not deserve. He lacked that wide range of scholarship and 
knowledge of state-craft, which was so necessary in a Senator 
from the great State which he represented, and in consequence 
did not do himself justice. He was during his first year in the 
Senate very caustic and severe in his denunciation of President 
Grant, sajdng many and bitter things against him, and when, in 
May, 1872, he suddenly became his ardent defender and eulogist, 
too many, who did not understand his impetuous and impulsive 
nature, attributed the change to base and unworthy motives. 



HON. JAMES F. WILSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM IOWA. 




N able, clear-headed lawyer, of cool, calm, judicial mind 
and sterling patriotism, is the late Eepresentative from 

Qs^ the first Congressional district of Iowa, The West has 
sent very few Representatives of higher talent, or greater 
ability and disposition for usefulness, to Congress within the 
last twenty years. Although a comparatively young man, (he 
has not yet seen his forty-fourth birthday,) the House leaned upon 
him, confided in him, and placed him in its positions of great 
responsibility, and it never found itself disappointed. 

James F. Wilson was born at Newark, Ohio, October 19, 
1828 ; received in that city, which, for years, has been famous 
for its good schools, a very thorough academic education, and 
then commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the 
Licking county bar, about 1849 ; in 1853, he removed to Fair- 
field, Iowa, where he speedily took a high rank in his profes- 
sion. In 1856, though but twenty-eight years old, he was 
chosen a member of the convention to revise the State Consti- 
tution, and acquitted himself with honor there. In 1857, he 
was appointed, by the governor of the State, Assistant Com- 
missioner of the Des Moines River Improvement. The same 
year he was elected to the Legislature, and became at once a 
leader in the House. In 1859, he was chosen State Senator, and 

re-elected in 1861, when he was made President of tne Senate. 
472 



HON". JAMES F. WILSON. 473 

In this position, at tlie outbreak of the war, he manifested so 
much patriotism, and so clear a comprehension of what was the 
duty of Iowa in aiding in the suppression of the rebellion, as to 
attract the attention of the people of that eminently loyal State, 
and rendered great service to the cause. When General Samuel 
R. Curtis, the Representative of the first district in Con- 
gress, resigned his seat, to take command of Iowa troops for 
the war, Mr. Wilson was promptly chosen to serve out the 
remainder of his term, and has since been re-elected to the 
XXXVIIIth, XXXIXth and XLth Congresses, and would 
have been continued there had he not positively declined a re- 
election in 1868. 

Though one of the youngest members of the House, the lead- 
ing men in it were not slow in discovering his superior abilities, 
and, at the beginning of the XXXVIIIth Congress, he was made 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in many respects the 
most important committee of the House, though such men as 
George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, and Thomas Williams, 
of Pennsylvania, were members of the committee. The event 
justified Speaker Colfax's selection. 

Mr. Wilson manifested rare ability in this position, and 
rarely reported a bill which did not pass the House. In his 
political views, he was radical, yet cautious, but stern and uncom- 
promising in regard to matters which he believed to be right. 
He had a rare faculty of seizing on the strong points of a case, 
and presenting them with such clearness and force as to insure 
conviction. He usually did this in all the great measures he 
brought forward from his committee in the House. 

In his argument for granting impartial suffrage in the District 
of Columbia, he urged the early practice of the colonies, and 
most of the original States, in permitting colored suffrage, the 
causes which led to their apostasy from this; the low grade of 



47-i 



MEN OF OUR DAY. 



Union feeling among the white inhabitants and voters of the 
District, and the true principle of legislation on suffrage, and 
closed with the following appeal to the Ilouse : 

"And now, Mr. Speaker, who are the persons upon whom 
this bill will operate if we shall place it upon the statute-book 
of the nation ? They are citizens of the United States and resi- 
dents of the District of Columbia. It is true that many of them 
have black faces ; but that is God's work, and he is wiser than 
we. Some of them have faces marked by colors uncertain; 
that is not God's fault. Those who hate black men most in- 
tensely can tell more than all others about this mixture of colors. 
But, mixed or black, they are citizens of this republic, and 
they have been, and are to-day, true and loyal to their Govern- 
ment, and this is vastly more than many of their contemners 
can claim for themselves. 

" In this district a white skin was not the badge of loyalty, 
while a black skin was. No traitor breathed the air of this 
capital wearing a black skin. Through all the gradations of 
traitors, from Wirz to Jeff. Davis, criminal eyes beamed from 
white faces. Through all phases of treason, from the bold 
stroke of Lee upon the battle-field to the unnatural sympathy 
of those who lived within this district, but hated the sight of 
their country's flag, runs the blood which courses only under a 
white surface. "While white men were fleeing from this city to 
join their fortunes with the rebel cause, the returning wave 
brought black faces in their stead. White enemies went out, 
black friends came in. As true as truth itself were these poor 
men to the cause of this imperilled nation. Wherever we have 
trusted them they have been true. Why will we not deal 
justly by them ? Why shall we not, in this district, where the 
first effective legislative blow fell upon slavery, declare that 
these suffering, patient, devoted friends of the republic, shall have 



HON. JAMES F. WILSON. 475 

the power to protect their own rights by their own ballots ? 
Is it because thej are ignorant ? Sir, we are estopped from 
that plea. It comes too late. "We did not make this inquiry 
in regard to the white voter. It is only when we see a man 
t»ith a dark skin that we think of ignorance. Let us not stand 
on this view in relation to this district. The fact itself is 
rapidly passing away, for there is no other part of the popula- 
tion of the district so diligent in the acquisition of knowledge 
as the colored portion. In spite of the difficulties placed in 
their pathway to knowledge by the white residents, the colored 
people, adults and children, are steadily pressing on." He 
finished by urging the passage of the bill, which he secured a 
few days later by a vote of more than two thirds. 

On the trial of Andrew Johnson upon the articles of im- 
peachment preferred against him by the House of Representa- 
tives, Mr. Wilson was chosen one of the managers of the trial, 
and in a closing argument of great force and pertinence, sought 
to demostrate the guilt of the President. 

Mr. Wilson has been repeatedly offered Cabinet positions, and 
two or three of the foreign missions in Europe were tendered 
him, but he has declined them all. In the winter of 1872 he 
was elected to the United States Senate, to succeed Hon. James 
Harlan. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 




JHE courage, pugnacity, fertility of genius, and patriotism, 
which enter so largely into the composition of Benjamin 
Franklin Butler, are his by inheritance. His grand- 
father. Captain Zephaniah Butler, of Woodbury, Con- 
necticut, fought under General Wolfe at Quebec, and served in 
the Continental army, during the entire war of the Revolution ; 
while the general's father, John Butler, of Deerfield, New 
Hampshire, was a captain of dragoons in the war of 1812, and 
served for a while under General Jackson at New Orleans. 
And our hero's mother was of that doughty race of Scotch- 
Irish origin, to which belonged Colonel Cilley (also an ancestor 
of General Butler) " who, at the battle of Bennington, commanded 
a company that had never seen a cannon, and who, to quiet 
their apprehensions, sat astride of one while it was discharged." 
John Butler, the ex-captain of dragoons, after the war, fol- 
lowed the sea — in the various capacities of supercargo, merchant 
or captain in the West India trade. In politics he was a full 
blooded Jeffersonian Democrat — one of eight representatives, 
only, of that party, in the town of Deerfield, whose Democracy 
isolated them, socially as well as politically, to a degree which 
is inconceivable to us of the present day, who knew New 
Hampshire a few years ago as the Democratic stronghold of 
New Englaml. So that his son, Benjamin Franklin Butler, 
476 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 477 

born at Deerfield, on tlie Sth of November, 1818, was also 
" born," as has been happily said, " into the ranks of an ab- 
horred but positive and pugnacious minority — a little Spartan 
band, always battling, never subdued, never victorious." Five 
months after his birth, the boy lost his father, who died in 
March, 1819, of the yellow fever, while his vessel was lying at 
one of the West India Islands. 

His widow, a woman of true New England energy, supported 
her two boys by her individual exertions ; and, in 1828, removed 
to Lowell, then a young but thriving town of two thousand 
inhabitants ; where, by taking boarders, she was enabled to give 
Benjamin better educational advantages than he had before 
enjoyed. From the common school he passed to the High 
School and from thence to the Exeter Academy, where he pre- 
pared for college. If his own predilections had been consulted, 
he would have gone to West Point — but his mother, who, like 
all New England mothers, desired to see her boy in the ministry, 
consulted with her pastor, and by his advice Benjamin was seni 
to Waterville College, in Maine, an institution recently founded 
by the Baptist denomination. So, with the little occasional 
help received from a kind New Hampshire uncle, and the scanty 
earnings which he was able to secure from three hours' work 
per day, at chair-making, in the manual labor department of 
the college, he gained the ambition of his young manhood — 
an education, and left the college halls fully determined to be a 
lawyer. 

Just then there came to him a special Providence — one which 

•we might wish would come, in like circumstances, to every 

youth as he leaves his Alma Mater. A good-hearted uncle, 

"skipper" of a fishing smack, urged him to accompany him on 

a trip to the coast of Labrador, saying to him, "I'll give you a 

bunk in the cabin, but you must do your duty before the mast, 
29 



478 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

watcli and watch, like a man. I'll warrant you'll come back 
sound enough in the fall." So the pale-faced student accepted 
the kindly offer and returned from a four months' voyage with 
a fund of perfect health, which has lasted him ever since. 

With rencv/ed vigor the youth of twenty commenced the study 
of law, iu the office of William Smith, Esq., of Lowell ; and, being 
admitted to the bar in 1840, entered heart and soul into the 
practice of his chosen profession. He eked out his slender in- 
come by school teaching; he labored indefatigably eighteen 
hours out of the twenty-four; he joined the City Guard, a com- 
pany of the since f\imous Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts, and 
perseveringly worked his way through every regular gradation 
up to the rank of colonel. Work he craved — work he would 
have — and work he succeeded in getting. " All was fish that 
camo to his n -t." "His speeches," says a personal friend, " were 
smart, impudent, reckless, slap-dash affairs, showing the same 
general traits which have characterized him as a lawyer and 
politician ever since he began his career. He very soon became 
a decided character in Lowell and Middlesex county. He made 
politics and law play into each other's hands; and while he 
denounced the agents and overseers of the mills as tyrants and 
oppressors, his office was open for the establishment of all sorts 
of lawsuits on behalf of the male and female operatives." 

From his twentieth year he was an eager, busy politician, 
whom every election-time found diligently "stumping" the neigh- 
boring towns; and (after 1844) regularly attending the National 
Democratic Conventions. His history is closely identified with 
that of the Democratic party in Massachusetts during twenty 
years, 1840-60. A "Coalitionist" in 1852, he united with the 
Free-soilers to crush out the old Whig party. In 1853 he was 
elected on the Coalition ticket, to the Legislature — and was the 
acknowledged leader of that party in the House, his wordy 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 479 

battles with Otis P. Lord, the Whig leader, being memorable in 
the history of legislative strife and debate in that State. 

In the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 
which shortly followed, the Coalitionists of Lowell were ably 
represented by Butler, who exhibited a marked degree of 
ability, and of intimate acquaintance with the principles under 
discussion. And, though the Constitution was rejected, and 
Coalition died out, yet he was always loyal to his old allies, 
the Free-Soilers, and when in 1855, the " Know-Nothing" or- 
ganization came suddenly into existence, he battled against it 
with all the tremendous energy of which he was capable. 
When the new Know Nothing governor, Gardner, recommend- 
ed in his annual message tho exclusion of all persons of 
foreign birth from the state militia ; and ordered the disband- 
ment of certain companies wholly or largely composed of 
such — some of which companies belonged to Colonel Butler's 
regiment, he refused to transmit the order and was sum- 
marily deprived of his command by the governor. He then 
turned around and prosecuted the adjutant-general for remov- 
ing the arms from the armory — but without satisfactory result. 
In 1857, however, he was chosen brigadier-general by the 
officers of the brigade to which his regiment belonged, and 
received his commission from the hands of the same governor 
who had broken him of his colonelcy. During the following 
year he exhibited his usual vigor and fearlessness as counsel in 
the celebrated Burnham contempt case. In 1858, as the can- 
didate of the "Liberals," Butler ran for governor but was de- 
feated by the " Hunker" candidate. In the fall of the same 
year, however, the Conservatives elected him to the State 
Senate ; and, in 1859, he was nominated, still on the Liberal 
ticket, for the governorship, but, although receiving the full 
vote of his party, was defeated by Nathaniel P. Banks. As a 



4S0 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

legislator lie opposed the old banking system and advocated 
what is known as the New York system ; and he battled persist- 
ently and successfully for the " ten hour" bill, which gave the 
working men two additional hours out of the twenty-four for 
rest and self-improvement. 

In April, 1860, General Butler was a delegate to the Demo- 
cratic Convention, held at Charleston, S. C, and as a member 
of the committee appointed to prepare a " platform" for that 
party, in the coming Presidential campaign, he took a very 
prominent part; strongly and tenaciously insisting upon an 
adherence to the principles of the platform adopted at the 
Democratic Presidential Convention of 1856, held at Cincinnati. 
Both at Charleston and at Baltimore, at which city the Conven- 
tion met, by adjournment, June 18th, he refused his support to 
any measures which looked to any further concessions to the 
South, on the part of the Democracy of the North. When the 
Convention divided, he, with other delegates who were firmly 
opposed to Douglas's nomination, withdrew from the meeting 
and nominated the " Breckinridge and Lane" ticket, and the 
campaign commenced. It cannot be doubted that in espousing 
thus Breckinridge's interest, he was misled by representations 
made to him by the southern leaders ; for it soon became 
evident that the Breckinridge men at the South, and in Con- 
gress, contemplated treason. On his return to Massachusetts, 
he found himself the most unpopular man in the State — hooted 
at in the streets of Lowell, and a meeting at which he was to 
speak, broken up by a mob. lie "had his say out," how- 
ever, at another meeting, and vindicated himself — as events, and 
his own course have since done — from any complicity with 
treason. In the fall of the same year, he became the Breckin- 
ridge candidate for governor, but was defeated, receiving only 
SIX thousand voteb'. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 4S1 

Tn December, 1860, Mr. Lincoln having been elected, Butler 
visited Washington on party business, and there became aware 
of the full meaning and extent of the southern movement. 
Seccssmi he found to be considered, by its leaders, as an accom- 
plished fact. He reasoned earnestly but fruitlessly with them — 
he was offered, in return, a share in their treasonable enterprise. 
Spurning the offer, he waited upon the Government with advice 
which, as a leader of the party in power, he was entitled to 
give; and which, had it been accepted and acted upon, might 
have changed the whole aspect of subsequent events. But 
Mr. Buchanan was timorous and embarrassed. Then the gen- 
eral united with his old friend (and political opponent) in 
urging the Governor of Massachusetts to prepare the militia of 
the State for the coming struggle. Governor Andrew followed 
their suggestions — ^and what of preparation was accomplished 
was effected not a moment too soon. Sumter fell beneath the 
blows of armed treason. A call came to Boston for two full 
regiments. General Butler, arguing a case in the court-room,. 
at 5 p. M., endorsed the order which called the glorious Sixth 
of his brigade to arms, at eleven o'clock of the next day, on 
Boston Common. Then he effected a loan of $50,000 from one 
of the Boston banks, to help off the troops ; and within twent}' - 
four hours thereafter came an order from Washington for a 
fall brigade, and he was appointed to the command. On the 
17th started the Sixth, on the 18th two regiments by steamer 
and the Eighth by rail, accompanied by General Batler in 
person. Arrived at Philadelphia on the 19th, they heard of 
the attack of the mob upon the Sixth, at Baltimore. Yet, amid 
the many conflicting rumors, and the dread uncertainty which 
hung over their path, the general determined to follow out his 
orders and nviroh his regiment to Washington via Baltimore. 

Leaving behind them the New York Seventh, who declined to 
3i 



482 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

share the risk of that route, the Eighth, on the 20th of April, 
took cars to Havre-de-Grace, and thence bj a ferry-boat — im- 
pressed into the service — reached Annapolis, Maryland. Arriv- 
ing at that place they found the town in momentary expectation 
of attack, and the school ship, the old " Constitution," belonging 
to the United States Naval Academy, fast aground and weakly 
manned, and at the mercy of the Secessionists, So Butler put 
his little ferry-boat alongside, put on board a guard and a strong 
crew of Marblehead sailors ; and finally, with incredible exer- 
tions, the " Constitution" was towed out to a place of safety. 
Another morning brought a steamer bearing the New York 
Seventh, and ere long, despite the repeated protestations of the 
civic authorities and the Governor of Maryland, both regi- 
ments were landed on the grounds of the Naval Academy. 
Butler now needed the railroad to "Washington ; but the depot 
was locked, and the track torn up. Seizing, by force, a small and 
purposely damaged engine from the depot, a private soldier 
was soon found who could put it in order — it was speedily in 
running trim, and track-laying commenced. 

The history of the three days' march which followed, laying 
track as they went all the way, forms a wonderful and romantic 
episode in the histor}'- of the war; but on the 25th the New 
York Seventh saluted the President at the White House, and 
Washington, as well as the whole North, breathed for the first 
time in many days a long sigh of relief Butler remained at 
Annapolis, where his active nature found full employment in 
providing for, and forwarding the troops, which now began to 
pour into the city by thousands. Before the week ended the 
''Department of Annapolis," embracing the country within 
twenty miles of the railroad on each side, was created, and the 
command given to General Butler. 

Meanwhile Baltimore was in the hands of the sympathizers 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 483 

with treason ; and as Baltimore went, so went the State. This 
then was the next great object of solicitude on the part of 
the Government. General Scott proposed to seize it by a stra- 
tegic movement of four columns of three thousand men each. 
General Butler, who had, on the 4th of May, seized the Eelaj 
House, nine miles from Baltimore, set forth in the night of the 
13th of May with nine hundred men and some artillery, and 
using a simple stratagem to blind the Baltimoreans to his real 
design, conveyed his force by rail into the city, occupied Fed- 
eral Hill in the midst of a tremendous thunder-storm, planted 
his guards and cannon so as to command the city, and issued 
a "proclamation," which was to the astonished citizens the first 
intimation which they had, on the following morning, of the pre- 
sence of Union troops in their midst. For this he was censured 
by Lieutenant-General Scuct, but was immediately commissioned 
a major-general, May 16th, 1861, by President Lincoln, and 
assigned to the command of the new "Department of Virginia," 
(embracing South-eastern Virginia, North and South Carolina) 
with headquarters at Fortress Monroe. He found much to be 
done, the fort to be improved, the department to be studied and 
regulated, the troops to be drilled, and sundry expeditions and 
reconnoissances to be made in the vicinity. He prepared, also, 
an army for an attack upon Richmond, but it was crippled by 
a sudden call of most of his troops to the defence of Washing- 
ton. On the 9th and 10th of June, occurred the night expedi- 
tion which resulted in the affair at Big Bethel, the first reverso 
which the Union arms had as yet sustained, and which, 
although in the light of subsequent experience, only a skirmish, 
was a heavy blow to the popular expectation in the loyal States. 
Its ill-success, however, was due rather to an unfortunate mis- 
manag9:nent in the several commands detailed for the service, 



434 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

and in tlic experience of the brigadier commanding the expedi- 
tion, than to General Butler. 

It was during the Fortress Monroe period, also, that General 
Butler's acute intellect solved the difficulty, which had puzzled 
all of our politicians and military men, as to the stahis of the 
slaves of masters in rebellion against the Federal government, 
bv pronouncing them " contraband of war,^^ a decision the 
whimsicality of which is infinitely heightened by the basis of 
truth upon which it is predicated. From General Butler also 
came (in the form of a communication to the Government, 
August 30th, 1861) the first distinct avowal of the right and 
the duty of the Federal Government to emancipate every slave 
within the Union lines. This opinion, urged as a military neces- 
sity, and fortified by unanswerable arguments, was not, how- 
ever, adopted by the Administration for more than a year after. 

On the 19th of August, 1861, he was relieved from the com- 
mand at Fortress Monroe, and on August 26th, sailed in com- 
mand of the military part of an expedition, in conjunction with 
Commodore Stringham, against the forts at Hatteras Inlet. 
They were captured August 29th (together with a large number 
of arms, cannon, and prisoners), and at Butler's suggestion, the 
forts were retained ; serving subsequently as the basis of Burn- 
side's splendid operations on the North Carolina coast. 

The Government now entertained the project of a combined 
land and water attack on New Orleans, and the winter of 
1861-62 was busily spent in preparation for the enterprise, the 
difficulties of which were felt to be as great as its advantages to 
the Union cause would be glorious. A fleet of frigates and 
gunboats was fitted out by Commodore Farragut ; a formidable 
mortar fleet was got ready by Commander D. D. Porter, and 
the command of the co-operating land force was given to 
General Butler. The general was assigned to the newly 



BEN^JAMIN FEANKLIISr BUTLER. 485 

created " Department of New England," in order to recruit men 
for the service, and his first transports sailed from Portland, 
Maine, in November, but the public was not informed as to the 
actual point of operations until the following spring. The 
advance of the expedition, which was commanded by General 
Phelps, whose aid Butler had especially desired, reached ita 
destination, Ship Island (sixty-five miles from New Orleans, 
and fifty from Mobile Bay, both of which places it thus men- 
aced), earl};- in March, and was followed by the bomb flotilla, 
and transports with a formidable armament of mortars and 
heavy guns. The forts, navy-yard, dry dock, storehouses, 
barracks, and marine hospital at Pensacola, upon which the 
rebels had bestowed great labor and expense, were speedily 
abandoned and burned by them ; and about the middle ox 
April, the fleet and flotilla gathered together in the Mississippi 
river, ten miles below Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Six days' 
unsuccessful bombardment of these forts (18th to 23d) decided 
Admiral Farragut to run past them, which he successfully 
accomplished on the 24th, and anchored before the city of New 
Orleans on the 25th. The forts, however, held out until the 
prompt and unexpected landing of Batler's army in the rear of 
Fort St. Philip, and its complete investment on every side, 
obliged their capitulation to the Federal authority. Having 
thus opened the Mississippi in the rear of Farragut's victorious 
fleet. General Butler's army came up the river and on the 1st of 
May, 1862, landed and took possession of New Orleans. The his- 
tory of the occupation of that intensely rebel and defiant city forms 
perhaps the most satisfectory chapter in the history of the war 
of the rebellion.* " The iron heel of military law was placed 

* We acknowkid'^e with pleasure our indebtedness to Mr. Parton's 
Life of General Butler, for this vivid picture of his career at New Orleans. 
Mr. Parton's book stands without a rival in its graphic portraiture of 
Its subject. 



486 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

witli relentless severity upon the stiff necks of a people wlioso 
whole social system bad long been a terror to themselves and a 
disgrace to American civilization ; and whose violent passions 
seemed uncontrollable even by the menace of the armed hand. 
But each day that passed, now gave evidence that these 
wretched people had found a master whose will of iron and 
nerves of steel were fully equal to the task, which their con- 
tumacy imposed upon him. Full of sagacity and force, he 
quickly evolved order from chaos, lie found the poor of New 
Orleans starving in the midst of plenty ; he regulated trade so 
that they were fed, and the price of food was cheapened. The 
business of the city was dead, and he endeavored to revive it. 
The currency was deranged and he improved it. The yellow 
fever was at hand, and the city reeked with filth ; he adminis- 
tered sanitary science with such effect that hut one case occurred 
during a season which generally desolated the city, in which, 
also, there were now 20,000 unacclimated northern troops. The 
city government was hostile and obstructive ; he " straightened 
them out." The foreign consulates were depots of concealment 
for rebel treasure, and centres of foreign and rebel machinations 
against the United States; he quickly possessed himself of the 
money, for the use of the Government, and gave them to under- 
stand that foreign flags could not be allowed to cover domestic 
treason. He administered the police duty of New Orleans, in a 
manner hitherto unknown to "the oldest inhabitants" — he 
shamed into external decency, at least, the rebel women, whose 
hostility to the Yankee invader had overmastered the modesty 
of demeanor which belonged to their sex — he hung Mumford, 
wiiO had pulled down the American flag from the Custom House 
upon the first arrival of the fleet — he assessed the prominent 
and wealthy rebels for the benefit of the poor, and for the ex- 
penses of his sanitary and other improvements, basing the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 487 

assessment upon their respective contributions to the rebel 
defence of New Orleans — he placed the railroads in running 
order again, he improved the levees — he took the banks " in 
hand" with a vigor that was revivifying and wholesome — he 
suppressed rampant newspapers until they learned that " liberty 
of the pen" did not necessarily mean license — he disarmed New 
Orleans, and so thoroughly sifted the whole population, that he 
knew the particular shade and complexion of each man's poli- 
tics — he permitted registered enemies of the United States to 
seek more congenial homes elsewhere — he relentlessly confisca- 
ted the estates of contumacious rebels; in short, he suppressed 
the rampant minority which had carried the State out of the 
Union, and fostered the self-respect, protected the interests, 
maintained the rights, and elevated the scale of civilization 
among the people of Louisiana, both white and black, bond and 
free." 

He was not allowed, however, to carry out the splendid work 
of regeneration which he had commenced. Intriguing diploma- 
tists and enemies whose interests had been affected by his 
management in New Orleans, succeeded in procuring his recall; 
and on the IGtli of November, 1862, he was relieved of his 
command by General Banks. The policy of conciliation, to 
which his successor gave a fair trial, proved itself an im- 
mediate, complete, and undeniable failure. General Butler's 
return home was a series of honorable welcomes from the cities 
and communities of the loyal States through which he passed, 
and he was presented, by Congress, with one of the captured 
swords of the rebel General Twiggs. 

During the year 1863, General Butler, being without a 
command, rendered good service to the Government by his 
public speeches in various places ; and in July and November 
of that year was, for a short time, invested with the chief mill- 



488 MEN OF O^U DAY. 

tary command of New York city, whicli had recently been the 
scene of the terrible " draft riots." 

When Lieutenant-General Grant, in the spring of 1864, 
inaugurated his great and final campaign, he assigned to 
General Butler the command of the Army of the James, which 
was composed of the corps formerly known as the Army of 
Eastern Virginia and North Carolina, the 18th corps from 
Louisiana, and the 10th corps, partly of colored troops, from 
(General Gillmore's) the Department of the South. To his 
division of the Grand Army was assigned the duty of seizing, 
by an adroit manoeuvre, the position of Bermuda Hundred, on 
the south bank of the James, midway between Eichmond 
and Petersburg ; and the interposing of such a force between 
those two cities, as should isolate them from each other and 
result in the capture of the latter. This part of the programme 
was skilfully carried out by General Butler; Bermuda Hun- 
dred (on the 4th of May, 1864) was occupied and fortified ; on 
the 7th, the railroad was cut below Petersburg. A strong but 
unavailing attack was made upon Fort Darling on May 13th ; 
and the repeated attempts of the enemy (21st and 24th), to 
drive him from his own position, were each handsomely re- 
pulsed. On the 10th, an attempt was made to capture Peters- 
burg; General Gillmore, with about three thousand five hun- 
dred troops attacking it on the north, General Kautz's cavalry 
force on the south, and General Butler, with the gunboats as- 
saulting from the north and east. The plan was partially and 
handsomely carried out by Butler and Kautz, the latter of 
whom entered the city and maintained a hand-to-hand fight for 
sometime ; but the enterprise was finally rendered abortive by 
General Gillmore's declining, with the force at his command, to 
attack the rebel works. 

Duiing the summer General Butler's forces had been cutting 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 489 

a ca. lal across tlie neck of a peninsula, called Farrar's Island, 
formed by a six-mile bend in the Eiver James. This neck of 
land was only half a mile across, so that the canal, it was 
expected, would greatly shorten and facilitate the passage of 
gunboats on the river. As it, also, somewhat imperilled Fort 
Darling and flanked the rebel position at Howlett's, it would 
oblige them to erect new and more extended lines of defence ; 
and the Confederates made a desperate attempt, on the 12th of 
August, to shell out the negroes who were at work on the 
canal, or " Dutch Gap," as it was called. In order to relieve 
the ditchers from the annoyance to which they were subjected 
by the heavy fire from rebel rams and batteries, an attack was 
made upon the Confederate position at Strawberry Plains, on 
the 1-ith, which resulted in a Union victory, and was followed 
by another success at Deep Bottom, on the 16th. Eebel pris- 
oners were also set at work in the "Gap." While these move- 
ments were in progress. Grant seized the opportune moment to 
attempt to gain possession of the Weldon Railroad ; which was, 
after repeated and deperate fighting, secured and torn up for 
a considerable distance, on the 21st. In all the subsequent 
movements of the Union forces before Richmond and Peters- 
burg, the Army of the James, under General Butler, contributed 
their full share of heroic fighting, patient waiting, and hard work. 
Early in the month of December, an expedition was planned 
by General Grant against Wilmington, North Carolina, which 
had long been one of the principal channels by which foreign 
supplies of arms, ammunition, clothing, etc., had reached the 
Confederacy. Its formidable defences, and the peculiar nature 
of its coast, rendered its successful closure against blockade- 
runners almost impossible; a fact at which both the Govern- 
ment and the officers of the blockading squadron felt deeply 
chagrined. The naval portion of the expedition, which set 



490 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

sail on the 9tli, was commanded by Admiral Porter, and tlie 
land forces, which sailed on the 12th, had been drawn from the 
Army of the James, and were commanded by General Butler 
iu person. 

Arriving off New Inlet on the 24th, the squadron opened a 
fire upon Fort Fisher, which, for rapidity, intensity and weight 
of metal, was hitherto unexampled in the history of warfare. 
On the 25th, the land forces were disembarked; a joint assault 
was ordered at evening, the troops attacking the land face of 
the fort, while the fleet was to bombard its sea front. Upon 
moving forward to the attack, however, General Weitzel, who 
accompanied the column, came to the conclusion, from a careful 
reconnoissance of the fort, that " it would be butchery to order 
an assault ;" and General Butler, having formed the same opin- 
ion from other information, re-embarked his troops, and sailed 
for Hampton Roads. The opinion of General Weitzel, an ex- 
perienced engineer officer, to the effect that the fort had been 
" substantially unimpaired" by the terrific naval fire to which 
it had been for several days subjected, did not satisfy Admiral 
Porter, whose report to the Naval Department reflected 
severely upon General Butler's course; and upon that general's 
return to the James river, he was relieved from the command 
of the Army of the James, and ordered to report at Lowell, 
Massachusetts, his residence. 

The successful capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, two 
weeks later, by Admiral Porter and General Terry, greatly in- 
creased the popular dissatisfaction with General Butler — but his 
course seems to have been fully justified by unimpeachable 
evidence which was subsequently adduced. It was, however 
the last active military service performed by General Butler. 

In November 1866, he was elected on the Eepublican ticket. 
Representative in the XLth Congress for the fifth district of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 491 

Massachusetts, receiving 9,021 votes against 2,838 votes for 
Northend, Democrat. During the session of 1867-8 he took a 
conspicuous part as one of the Managers of the impeachment 
and trial of President Johnson. His speech at the opening of 
the impeachment trial was pronounced, even by his opponents, 
the ablest of its kind on record. 

Of General Butler, as a lawyer, it has' been well said by one 
who knew him intimately, that " At the criminal terms of the 
Middlesex Court, he has done a greater amount of business than 
anybody else, and his reputation at present is that of the most 
successful criminal lawyer- of the State, His devices and shifts 
to obtain an acquittal and release are absolutely endless and in- 
numerable. He is never daunted or baffled until the sentence ia 
passed and put in execution, and the reprieve, pardon, or com- 
mutation is refused. An indictment must be drawn with the 
greatest nicety, or it will not stand his criticism. A verdict of 
"guilty" is nothing to him — it is only the beginning of the case; 
he has fifty exceptions, a hundred motions in arrest of judg- 
ment ; and after that, the habeas corpus and personal replevin. 
The opposing counsel never begins to feel safe until the evidence 
is all in, for he knows not what new dodges Butler may spring 
upon him. He is more fertile in expedients than any man who 
practices law .among us." And this same fertility of resource 
did the country rare good service during the late war of the 
rebellion. Yet he is not logical — his statements and arguments, 
when closely analyzed, are frequently mere sophistical decep- 
tions, so ingeniously constructed, however, that he often believes 
them liimself. But they are always ingenious, bewildering, set 
with homely illustrations, full of insinuations, and put wi*th such 
vehemence and in such plain Anglo-Saxon, z^ often to totally 
overwhelm his adversary. 

Anecdotes innumerable are told of his audacity, and quickness 



402 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

of retort. Upon one of his first cases being called into court Tie 
said, in the usual way, " Let notice be given !" " In what 
paper ?" asked the aged clerk of the court, a strenuous Whig. 
"In the Lowell Advertiser^'' was the reply; the Advertiser being a 
Jackson paper, never mentioned in a Lowell court; of whose 
mere existence, few there present would confess a knowledge. 
"The Lowell Advertisers^ said the clerk with disdainful non- 
chalance, "I don't know such a paper," " Pray, Mr. Clerk," said 
young Butler, "do not interrupt the proceedings of the Court; 
for if you begin to tell us what you douH know, there will be no 
time for any thing else," So, at a later date, and not long after 
the execution of Professor Webster, of Harvard College, for the 
murder of Dr. Parkman, when he was examining a professor of 
that college as a witness, and was "badgering" him in his usual 
not very respectful manner, the opposing counsel appealed to 
the court, reminding them that the witness was an educated 
gentleman "and a Harvard professor." Butler contemptuously 
replied "I am aware of it, your Honor; we hung one of them 
the other day," 

In the impeachment trial, in 1868, the Hon. Fernando Wood, 
of New York, received one of those scathing replies which 
Butler can strike out instantaneously at "a white heat." 
Mr. Wood undertook to protest to the "replication" entered 
before the Court of Impeachment, on the ground that he, as one 
of "the people of the United States" in whose name it was made, 
objected to it. General Butler immediately turned upon him 
with — " The representatives of the people usually represent them, 
but the gentleman (Mr. Wood) has not even the merit of origin- 
ality in his objection. The form is one that has been used 500 
years, lacking eight. The objection was made to it once before, 
and only once, when the people of England, smarting under the 
usurpatio'i and tyranny of Charles L, not having any provision 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN BUTLER. 493 

in tlieir Constitution as we have, by which that tyrant could be 
brought to justice outside of their Constitution, and in a per- 
fectly legal manner, as I understand and believe, brought Charles 
to justice. When proclamation was made that they were pro- 
ceeding in the name of all the people of England, one of the ad- 
herents rose and said, ' No, all the people do not consent to it,' 
so that the gentleman has at least a precedent for what he has 
done ; and I wish we could follow out the precedent in this 
House, because the Court inquired who made that objection, and 
tried to find the offender for the purpose of punishing him [laugh- 
ter] ; but as he concealed himself he could not be found, and he 
afterward turned out to he a woman [laughter], the wife of General 
Fairfax, who ratted on that occasion from the rest of the Com- 
mons." And, then, in reply to some strictures in which Wood 
had indulged concerning an implied lack of courtesy on the part 
of the House Managers — he quietly remarked that he " hoped 
the House would not receive any lectures or suggestions upon 
propriety of language, or propriety of conduct, from the gentleman 
who stands as yet under its censure for a violation of all parliament- 
■ ary rules f an allusion to an event of only a few weeks previous 
occurrence, which effectually " squelched " the leader of the 
" Mozart Democracy." 

Since the election of General Grant to the Presidency, General 
Butler has contrived to occupy a prominent position before the 
public most of the time. He had become reconciled to President 
Grant before his election (they had previously been on very bad 
termsin consequence of the Fort Fisher affair), and he has ranged 
himself among the leading supporters of the administration. His 
relations with other members of the Kepublican party and the 
Democrats in Congress have been at times very bitter and un- 
pleasant. He quarrelled with Speaker Blaine, with most of the 
Massachusetts members of Congress, with both the Massachusetts 
Senators, with Governor Hawley of Connecticut, and with promi- 



494 MEX OF OUR DAT. 

nent Republicans of New York, Ohio, and Illinois. In 1S71. ha 
announced his purpose of running for Governor of Massachusetts 
and took the stump in his own behalf before the nominating con- 
vention. He canvassed' steadily and vigorously, and at the meet- 
ing of the convention was very sanguine of a nomination, but the 
union of the friends of the other candidates on Mr. "Washburn 
caused his defeat, and though evidently vexed and chagrined, he 
took his disappointment very calmly, and did what he could to 
help the election of the successful candidate. Of late he has 
sought to be the leader of the Republican party in the House, 
but finds too many bolters from his rather imperious rule. He 
is a warm defendant of President Grant and of all his measures, 
but is supposed not to be very well pleased with Senator Wilson's 
nomination, as he was dissatisfied with him for not favoring his 
nomination for Governor. General Butler is in fact a singular 
compound. He has many good traits : we believe he means to 
be patriotic, and sincerely thinks that the measures he urges are 
for the good of the country. He is unscrupulous, eager for power, 
and ready to adopt almost any means to obtain it : but though he 
has been often charged with venality and corruption, and a 
fiworite taunt of his adversaries has been " the spoons," referring 
to his rigid measures of confiscation in New Orleans, and the 
supposed wealth he obtained by plunder there, we are satisfied 
that he is not guilty of taking bribes or of any frauds in his civil 
administration during the war, or his congressional career since. 
Had he been thus corrupt, there were abundant opportunities to 
have proved it conclusively ; but every suit where it has been 
attempted to prove anything of the sort has utterly broken down, 
not from his skill in managing it, but from absolute lack of proof. 
The general is so erratic, and so careless of the means by which he 
accomplishes his purposes, that he will always have enemies, in the 
party with which he acts, and in that which he opposes. He is, in 
fact, an Ishmaelite, and about as dangerous to his friends as to his foe. 



HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 




HE Republican party is the legitimate heir of the old 
Federal and Whig parties — the parties of \Yashington 
i^\ and "Webster — which, in the ancient and mediasval pe- 
riods of the Republic, as they may be termed, illustrated 
the sentiment and the idea of nationality as opposed to the 
heresy of State sovereignty. 

There is, nevertheless, flowing in the veins of this great Re- 
publican organization much of the best blood of the old Demo- 
cratic party. The men who adopted the political teachings of 
Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and 
the inspirer of the ordinance of 1789, who heartily believed the 
great American doctrines of the freedom and equality of all 
men, and the power and duty of the nation to protect the na- 
tional domain from the pollution of human slavery, passed, by 
a natural transition, into the Republican ranks when the Demo- 
cratic party abandoned the faith of its fathers, and became the 
embodiment of a " creed outworn." 

Among the men of the Democratic party who earliest sepa- 
rated from " its decaying forms," and contributed to organize a 
new party, in the light of truth and reason, on the basis of 
inherent, inalienable right, was the subject of this sketch — 
William Darrah Kelley. 

He was born in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, on 

the 12th of Ap^il, 1814. His grandfather, Major John Kelley 

495 



496 MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

was a native of Salem county, New Jersey, and served through- 
out the Eevolution as an officer of the Continental line. The 
son of this Eevolutionary officer, and the father of the subject 
of this meraoir^ — -David Kelley — removed from New Jersey to 
Philadelphia, where he married a lady of Bucks county, Penn- 
Bylvania — Miss Hannah Darrah. The cloud of financial em- 
barrassment, which, at the close of the war of 1812, darkened 
the horizon, cast its deep shadow over the fortunes of Mr. Kel- 
ley ; and by his death, in 1816, his widow was left, without an 
estate, to support and educate a dependent family of four chil- 
dren, the youngest of whom — William — was but two years of 
age. Mrs. Kelley struggled nobly and well to fulfil this great 
trust, and lived to witness the consummation of her most ambi- 
tious hopes in the prosperity and advancement of her distin- 
guished son. 

At eleven years of age, it became necessary that William 
should earn his own living. He accordingly left school, and 
became an errand boy in a book store, then a copy-reader m the 
office of the " Philadelphia Inquirer'^ newspaper, and finally an 
apprentice to Messrs. Eickards & Dubosq, manufacturing jewel- 
lers, of Philadelphia. He attained his freedom in the spring of 
1834. This was the era of the removal of the deposits from 
the United States Bank; and Mr. Kelley 's first experience in 
political leadership was gained in encouraging and organizing 
the resistance of the Democratic workingmen to the tyrannous 
demands of the Whig capitalists of Philadelphia. The stand 
he took on this question rendered it difficult for him to obtain 
employment in his native city. He accordingly removed to 
Boston, and at once secured a situation in the establishment of 
Messrs. Clark and Curry. In Boston, the spirit of New England 
culture took deep hold upon his nature. While laboring with 
characteristic industry in the most difficult branch of his trade — 



HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 497 

the art of enamelling— and achieving a high reputation as a 
skilful aud tasteful workman, he improved his scholarship by 
solitary study ; and his contributions to the newspapers of the 
day, and written and extemporaneous lectures and addresses 
before public audiences, established his reputation as a writer 
and speaker of ability and power, in association even with such 
men as Bancroft, Brownson, Alexander H. Everett, Channing 
and Emerson. 

In 1839, he returned to Philadelphia, and entered, as a stu- 
dent of law, the ofl&ce of (^olonel James Page, a local leader of 
the Democratic party, and the postmaster of Philadelphia. On 
April 17, 1841, he was admitted to the bar of the several courts 
of his native city. His advancement in the profession was im- 
mediate and rapid ; while, in every political canvass, local and 
national, his stirring addresses attracted large audiences, and 
rendered him one of the most conspicuous figures in the Demo- 
cratic party. In January, 1845, he was appointed by the attor- 
ney-general of the State — Hon. John K. Kane — to conduct, in 
connection with Francis Wharton, Esq., who has since become' 
celebrated as a writer on criminal law, the pleas of the Com 
raonwealth in the courts of Philadelphia. In March, 1846,, 
Governor Shunk appointed Mr. Kelley a judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, a tribunal whose jurisdiction was co-extensive 
with the common law, chancery and ecclesiastical courts of 
England. In 1851, he was elected to the same bench, under the 
new Constitution of the State, upon an independent ticket, in 
defiance of the attempted proscription of the Democratic party 
organization, which was embittered against him for his course 
in the contested election case of Reed and Kneass. This was a 
triumphant vindication by the people of the justice and integ- 
rity of his action in that cause. 

But Judge Kelley did not confine himself to the topics of hia 
32 



498 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

professf.on or to the discussion of political questions. The pro- 
tection of the weak and down -trodden, the reformation of the 
ignorant and vicious, and the promotion of education, have ever 
found in him an eloquent and powerful advocate. His re- 
markable powers of oratory, give additional effect to his chaste 
and polished style, and few public speakers have proved so 
effective. We offer the following passages from an address of 
his before the Linnsean society of Pennsylvania college, Gettys- 
burg, on the " Characteristics of the Age," delivered over twenty 
years ago, as giving an idea of the» felicity and beauty of his 
style, as a writer. The earnestness and the clear ringing tone.s 
of the orator are wanting to give it full effect. 

" I would not disparage the value of the * little learning' 
which enables a man to read and write his mother tongue with 
facility. "When ' commerce is king,' the ability to do this is 
little less than essential to the physical well-being of the citizen. 
Under such government the receipt-book peaceably enough 
performs a large share of the functions of the embattled wall 
and armed retainers of the days when force was law. But to 
rise above the commercial value of these slender attainments, 
he who can read the language of Shakspeare and Milton, John- 
son and Addison, Shelley and Wordsworth, has the key to the 
collected wisdom of his race. The farms around his workshop, 
the property of others, present to his view a landscape which is 
his, and to him belongs every airy nothing to which poet ever 
gave habitation or name. The sages of the most remote past 
obey his call as counsellors and friends ; and in the company 
of prophet and apostle he may approach the presence of the 
Most High. The value of such a gift is inestimable. Wisdom 
and justice would make it the certain heritage of every child 
born in the commonwealth. 

* * * * 

" The spirit of commerce is essentially selfish. Yoyages are 
projected f3r profit. The merchant, whose liberal gifts surprise 
the world, chaffers in his bargains. Not for man is a family 



HON, WILLIAM D. KELLET. 499 

ot* br thren, therefore, are the blessing of this age. They are 
the gifts of a common Father, but thej come not, like light and 
dew, insensibly to all. They mark the achievements of our race, 
and manifest the master-spirit of the age, but hitherto they 
have been felt but slightly by the masses of mankind. Wealth 
increases ; but its aggregation into few hands takes place with 
ever-growing rapidity. The comforts of life abound ; but when 
the markets of the world are glutted, hunger is in the home of 
the artisan. Over-production causes the legitimate effects of 
famine. The ingenuity of political economists is vainly taxed 
for tlie means of preventing the accumulation of surplus mate- 
rial and fabrics. And while warehouse and granary groan 
with repletion, heartless theory points to the laboring popula- 
tion reduced to want and pauperism, and with dogmatic empha- 
sis, inquires if the increase of population cannot be legally 
restrained ? The state of the market shows that there are more 
men than commerce requires, and a just system of economy 
would adapt the supply to the demand ! 

* * •» * 

"Ancient philosophy did not recognize utility as an aim. It 
contemned, as mechanical and degrading, the discovery or in- 
vention that improved man's physical condition. Socrates 
invented no steam-engine or spinning-jenny. The soul was his 
constant study. Eegardless of his own estate, he cared not for 
the material comfort of others. Indifferent to the world him- 
self, he sought to raise his disciples above it. A disputatious 
idler and a scoffer at utility, he fashioned Plato and swayed the 
world for centuries. Our philosophy comes from Bacon. It 
only deals with the wants of man and uses of nature. The 
body is the object of its solicitude. Earth is the field of its 
hopes. Time bounds its horizon. Fruit, material fruit — the 
multiplication of the means of temporal enjoyment — was the 
end Lord Bacon had in view, when, denouncing the schools, he 
gave his theories to the world. Time and experience havo 
vindicated his methods. But have they not also shown, that 
a system which offers no sanction to virtue and no restraints 
to vice, whose only instruments are the senses, and whose only 



500 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

subject is material law, may impart to a world the vices which 
made the wisest also the meanest of mankind." 

In August, 1856, Judge Kellej was nominated, while absent 
from home, as the Republican candidate for Congress from the 
fourth Congressional district of Pennsylvania. He was not 
elected ; for the Republican idea had made at that day but 
feeble impression in Philadelphia, and the party was without 
means or organization. During that canvass he made his first 
great Republican address on Slavery in the Territories^ in Spring 
Garden Hall, Philadelphia. Motives of delicacy prompted him 
to resign his judicial office immediately after the election, and 
lie returned, after a term of nine years aad nine months on the 
bench, to the private practice of his profession. In October 
1860 he was elected on the Repablican ticket to the seat in 
Congress to which he has been 9Ay . times since returned by 
his constituents. On his return from the special session of 
Congress which convened on July -ith 1861, he participated as 
counsel for the Government, in the prosecution of the pirates of 
the rebel privateer, " Jeff Davis," and made a brilliant closing 
argument in that great State trial. 

In Congress he has spoken at length upon every national 
topic ; and, in most instances, he has borne the standard of his 
party, and planted it far in advance, holding it with firm and 
steady hand, until his friends occupied the position. 

As early as January 7th, 1862, he detected the fatal errors 
of the military policy of McClellan, and warned the country of 
the incompetency of that ofiicer, m an impromptu reply to the 
speech of Vallandigham, on the Trent case. On the 16th of 
January, 1865, he vindicated, in an elaborate speech, the justice 
and necessity of impartial suffrage as a fundamental condition 
of the restoration of Republican Governments in the rebel 
States. On the 22d of June, 1865, in an address on " the Safe- 



HOlf. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 501 

guards of Personal Liberty," at Concert Hall, Philadelphia, he 
criticised the policy of reconstruction foreshadowed by Presi 
dent Johnson in his North Carolina proclamation, and indicated 
a plan of action, in respect to the rebel States, which has been 
Bince substantially embodied in the reconstruction acts of 
Congress. In his speech on " Protection to American Labor," 
delivered in the House of Eepresentatives, on the 31st of 
January, 1866, he indicated a financial policy, in reference to the 
payment of the public debt, which Congress has fully adopted 
in the repeal of the cotton tax, and the modification of the 
duties on manufactured products. In connection with these 
remarkable speeches, may be mentioned his speech of the 27th 
of February, 1866, on "the Constitutional Regulation of Suf- 
frage." Two of Judge Kelley's speeches in Congress — that of 
January 16th, 1865, on Suffrage, and that of January 31st, 
1866, on Labor — have had more extensive circulation than the 
speeches of any other American statesman. More than half a 
million copies of each have been printed and distributed. 

At the first session of the XXXIXth Congress, Judge Kelley 
introduced the bill, which was afterwards passed with certain 
modifications, to secure the right of suffrage to the colored 
population of the District of Columbia. 

On the evening of the 22d of February, 1868, he spoke in 
favor of the impeachment of tlie President, and more recently 
participated in the debate in the House of Representatives on 
the resolution of Mr. Broomall, of Pennsylvania, to prohibit 
hereditary exclusion from the right of suffrage, and defended 
the position taken by him in his more extended speech, two 
years before, cm the Constitutional Regulation of Suffrage. 

We have not space even to mention the numerous speeches 
and addresses of Judge Kelley iu and out of Congress. He 
has addressed his fellow citizens from the lakes to the gulf. 



602 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

In the spring of 1867, be visited the Soatbern States, and in a 
series of addresses at New Orleans, Montgomery, and otber 
cities, spoke earnest and eloquent words of bope and encourage- 
ment to the people of the South. The noble wisdom and 
tender humanity which pervade these speeches, stamp them as 
ihe production of a statesman and philanthropist. They were 
words of friendly counsel, which the people of the South would 
do well to heed. 

A comprehensive, national character, and a generous, in- 
tense, all-embracing humanity, have always characterized 
Judge Kelley's political opinions. He saw, in the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, conclusive evidence that the Democratic 
party bad become sectional,- and be left it. He found that 
Democracy, which once bad meant civil and religious liberty, 
equality, justice, advancement, the greatest good of the greatest 
number, had come to mean proscription of opinion, aristocracy, 
tyranny, disorder, slavery ; and he abandoned it. 

lie is therefore one of the fathers of the National Eepublican 
party. The sincerity and earnestness of bis convictions would 
always gain for him the attention of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, if it were not commanded by the striking and en- 
gaging peculiarities of bis eloquence. He appears with equal 
advantage in impromptu reply, and in elaborately prepared 
address. His vehement declamation, delivered in tones of voice 
marvellously rich and powerful, thrills, on occasions, the 
members upon the floor, and the listeners in the galleries ; as 
when, on the memorable night of the 22d of February, he 
exclaimed: — 

" Sir, the bloody and untilled fields of the ten unreconstructed 
States, the unsheeted ghosts of the two thousand murdered 
negroes in Texas, cry, if the dead ever invoke vengeance, for 
the punishment of Andrew Johnson." 



HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 503 

Judge Kelley is certainly one of the ablest of the public men 
whom Philadelphia has sent to the national councils. She has 
too few of such men — men of progressive ideas, commanding 
talents, and national fame: and when one has served her, as 
Judge Kelley has, through twelve years of eventful history, it 
becomes her duty, as a just community, to cherish and honor him. 

There are men who though generally just and fair in their 
intercourse with their fellows, yet under the pressure of partisan 
dictation, or to gain some paltry end, will be guilty of participa- 
tion in acts of the grossest injustice, defending themselves by 
the Jesuit maxim: " The end justifies the means." With this 
class William D. Kelley has no affinities. In political action, as 
everywhere else, he is the soul of honor, and he would scorn to 
do an act of injustice to a political opponent as much as to his 
dearest personal friend. An instance of this occurred just before 
the close of the session of Congress in June, 1872. The leaders 
of Judge Kelley's own party were endeavoring to put through a 
bill received from the Senate, which was intensely offensive to 
the opposition, by the party whip and spur, and were even 
ready to risk the calling of an extra session of Congress in order 
to accomplish it. The opposition were resisting by every con- 
stitutional means, in the hope of obtaining a modification from a 
Committee of Conference which should render it less objection- 
able. Judge Kelley, seeing the unfairness of the course pursued 
by the party leaders, boldly threw himself into the breach, de- 
manded and obtained an extension of time and a new reference, 
which led to the desired modification of the bill. Few men have 
the moral courage to do such a thing in defiance of party rule. 
Only a strong man could have done it successfully ; but we be- 
lieve there was no man of either party in the House of Repre- 
sentatives who did not in his heart of hearts honor Judge Kelley 
for his daring and manliness, while very few would have the 
moral courage to follow his example in such an emergency. 



HENRY LAURENS DAWES, LL. D., 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MASSACHUSETTS. 




D|| N Western Massacliusetts, "the Switzerland of America," 
)1I there is a small town perched upon the summit and 
^ slopes of some of the higher hills which constitute the 
outlying spurs of the Green Mountain range. It is 
called Cummington, a bleak, barren region, where the deep 
snows settle in the later autumn, and last till May, so deep, that 
some years ago, the member of the State Legislature from that 
town could only reach Boston by travelling forty miles on 
snow-shoes, and drawing his trunk on a hand-sled. It is pleas- 
ant after its fashion in the summer time, but the summer is 
short, and altogether it is one of those towns from which the 
stranger would expect very little. Yet this little mountain 
town has raised much more than an average crop of men. Some 
of the most illustrious names in our history and literature were 
born there : clergymen, poets, philosophers and statesmen, all 
acknowledge this mountain hamlet as their birth-place. In 
one of its farm-houses, Henry Laurens Dawes was born, 
October 30th, 1816, and on its sterile and ungenerous soil the 
labor of his boyhood and early youth was bestowed. But the 
boy had his ambition. He desired above all things to obtain an 
education, and though like most farmer boys he had a hard 
struggle to attain it, yet he accomplished his purpose, acquiring 

sufficient preparatory training to enable him to enter Yale Col- 
504 



HENRY LAURENS DAWES, LL.D. 505 

lege in 1885, whence he graduated with a creditable standing in 
1839. After his graduation, he went to Greenfield, Massachu- 
setts, where he commenced the study of the law, editing at the 
same time the Greenfield Gazette. In 1842, he was admitted to 
the bar, and removed to North Adams, Massachusetts, where he 
settled in the practice of his profession, but while seeking busi- 
ness busied himself with the editorship of the North Adams 
Transcript. Mr. Dawes makes no pretension to genius, he is not 
a man who divines all knowledge by intuitions, without study 
or research ; but he is an industrious, painstaking worker, of 
sound, clear mind, a good deal of tact, and a faculty of insight 
into apparently intricate matters, which is worth much more 
than genius. These traits of character were ere long perceived 
by the enterprising, intelligent people of North Adams, and the 
young lawyer was after awhile compelled to relinquish the 
Transcript into other hands by the pressure of his legal business. 
In 1848, and again in 18-19 and 1852, he was elected to the State 
Legislature; in 1850 he was a State Senator; in 1853 he was a 
member of the State Constitutional Convention. In all these 
positions he was so able, clear-headed and industrious, that his 
constituents were fully satisfied with him, and would have been 
glad to have retained him longer in the legislature. But in 
1853 he was appointed District Attorney for the Western Dis- 
trict of the State, and removed to Pittsfield, the county seat. 
Here he soon had a circle of warm friends, and continued to be 
fully occupied .with his professional duties till 1857, when hav- 
ing been elected the previous autumn to Congress from the 
tenth or western district of Massachusetts, he took his seat in 
that body. lie has been continued in that place of honor by 
his constituents to the present time, a period of sixteen years. 
In congress he has proved one of the most useful membei*^ of 
that body; never domineering, never neglectful of his duties, 



506 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

but alwcays punctual, prompt and painstaking , whatever work is 
assigned to him will be always well done. He was for several 
terms chairman of the important Committee on Elections, and in 
the XLIId Congress was made chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means, which gives him the virtual leadership of the 
House. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia "Loyalists" 
Convention of 1866. 

Mr. Dawes is thoroughly committed to the Eepublican party 
and its measures, but he is not a bitter partisan, and retains the 
respect and esteem of all parties in the House. At home, he 
has the reputation of being an estimable citizen in all the rela- 
tions of life, and is greatly honored by the very intelligent con- 
Etituency he has served so long. 



BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN, 

GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI. 



) ifl one of the western States, certainly no western or south- 
western slave State, has reared so many men of eminent 
ability in our national affairs as Kentucky, Whether 
this pre-eminence is clue to her genial climate, her fertile 
soil, her bold and beautiful scenery, or to the stock from which her 
sons have come, is a legitimate subject of inquiry ; but the fact 
remains that among her people, even those without much edu- 
cation, there is an intelligence and thoughtfulness in regard to 
public affairs which is not found to anything like the same ex- 
tent in other States. They may be in error, a majority of them 
were grievously so during the late war, but you will hardly find 
a Kentuckian so ignorant or stupid that he has not made out, to 
his own satisfaction at least, the reasons which justify his political 
action. The educated class in the State, whatever tlieir political 
views, are among the best specimens of the thoroughbred gentle- 
man in our country. Highly intelligent, and holding clear and 
decided views on all State and national questions, they are frank, 
courteous, and manly, somewhat impetuous, as is natural from 
their Virginian ancestry and their early training ; but they are 
men to be loved and trusted. 

It is from one of the best families of Kentucky that the sub- 
ject of our sketch is sprung. The lion. John Brown, his grand- 
father, was born in Rockbridge, Va., in 1757; was chosen a 

Eepresentative in Congress from a western district of Virginia, 

507 



508 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

and remained in that capacity from 1789 to 1793, being tbe co- 
temporary and esteemed friend of the founders of the Republic. 
He subsequently removed to Kentucky, and settled at Frankfort. 
Here his abilities and honesty were soon appreciated, and when 
Kentucky was admitted into the Union he was one of her first 
senators, and during the first session of the Ylllth Congress was 
President p9-o tern, of the Senate. He was a warm supporter and 
life-long personal friend of President Jefferson, lie died at 
Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1837, at the venerable age of 80 years. 
His son, Judge Mason Brown (father of Governor Brown), was 
eminent as a jurist, and an upright, enlightened magistrate. He 
was for some 3'ears one of the judges of the Court of Appeals of 
Kentucky. Governor Brown's ancestry on the maternal side 
was no less distinguisljed. His mother's father, the Hon. Jesse 
Bledsoe, was a distinguished advocate and jurist of Kentucky, 
and represented that State in the Senate of the United States. 
He was a Professor of Law in the University of Transylvania, 
and Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of Kentucky. 

Benjamin Gratz Brown was born in Lexington, Ky., May 
28, 1826. From early childhood he was a fearless, manly boy, 
not simply physically brave — that were but an ordinary merit 
in his native State — but possessing that higher moral courage 
which made him ready to take the unpopular side, if he believed 
it to be right. He was carefully and very thoroughly educated 
under his father's eye, taking the full course of the Transylvania 
University at Lexington, and then entering Yule College as a 
junior, from whence he graduated with high honors in 1847. 
He had already developed an antagonism to slavery at the time 
of his graduation, and though he pursued his legal studies in 
his father's office, and was very thoroughly qualified to enter 
the profession in Kentucky, he preferred to fight his way to 
reputation as a reformer in a wider field. He removed to St, 



BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN. 509 

Louis in 1849, and there commenced the practice of his profes- 
sion. His extensive legal attainments, the carefulness with which 
he prepared his cases, and his eloquence as a pleader, remarka- 
ble even in that city of orators, soon won him business and fame. 
In 1852, before he had completed his twenty-sixth year, he was 
elected a member of the State Legislature, and being repeatedly 
re-elected, served for six years in that body. But he was eager 
to enter more fully upon the work to which he felt that he was 
called, and in 185-1, having assisted in founding the Missouri 
Democrat (which lias been for the past fifteen or sixteen years 
the leading political paper of St. Louis on the side of Keform 
and Progress), he became its editor-in-chief the same year, and 
continued in that position until 1859. From its start it advo- 
cated the Free Soil doctrines, and attacked slavery with an ear- 
nestness and vehemence which insured opposition. When the 
Republican party was organized, Mr. Brown and his journal ral- 
lied under its flag. He labored zealously for Frdmont in the 
campaign of 1856, and in 1857 delivered a speech in the legisla- 
ture, which, by its logical power, its caustic denunciation, and 
its vehement eloquence, roused tlie people against the aggres- 
sions of the slave power, and led the way to the fiercest political 
contests. 

The moral courage and daring which had been so conspicuous 
a trait in his boy-life came into fuller and grander play as he 
and his Free Soil associates preached the gospel of freedom 
throughout Missouri, in the legislature, in the Missoiiri Democrat, 
in public assemblies, and everywhere, with the earnestness and 
eloquence which resulted from thorough conviction of the truth 
of what they were urging. They were for years in the minority, 
out they were undismayed. Failing to subdue the fearless jour- 
nalist by political proscription, he was often menaced with per- 
sonal V'olence. On one occasion he received a shot throuijh 



510 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the knee, and was so severely injured that he still suffers from 
the effects of the wound. The zeal, energy, and sagacity of the 
emancipationists triumphed ; and in 1857 the Free Soil candi- 
date for governor came within less than 500 votes of being 
elected. But this partial defeat was compensated by the strong 
Union sentiment which was engrafted in the community, and 
which rendered Missouri proof against the blandishments of 
secession. 

Thenceforward, for four years, the side of freedom gained 
strength daily; and men, who had at first scouted the idea of 
Missouri being a free State, came cautiously to look with more 
favor on it, and by tens and twenties joined the ranks of the 
Free Soilers. And this result was owing more largely to the 
incessant and patriotic labors of B. Gratz Brown than to those 
of any other man, or, indeed, of all the rest put together. 

Then came the war. St. Louis was at first like a house divi- 
ded against itself The secession element was strong and bold, 
and there was for a time great danger of the city's falling into 
the hands of the rebels, who held control at first of the State 
o-overnment. But the coura2"e of the little band of heroes never 
faltered. As wise in counsel as he was patriotic in sentiment 
and daring in action, Mr. Brown, in consultation with the gallant 
Lyon, advised the attack and capture of Camp Jackson, near St, 
Louis, in May, 1861, and that measure, successfully carried out, 
relieved St. Louis from its danger, and secured the State to the 
Union. On that occasion Mr. Brown commanded a regiment of 
militia, and aided materially in accomplishing the desired result. 
Soon after he raised a regiment of volunteers, and in the field, as 
elsewhere, gave evidence of soldierly ability, and of his earnest 
devotion to the national cause. He was commissioned brigadier- 
general, and was foremost in organizing those movements which 
resulted in the ordinance of freedom in 1861. In 1863 he waa 



BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN. 511 

elected United States Senator from Missouri to fill out an unex- 
pired term of four years, and taking his seat in tbe Senate, 
although one of its youngest members, he soon won the reputa- 
tion of being an able legislator and statesman. He was placed 
on the Committees on Military Affairs, Pacific Eailroad, Indian 
Affairs, Public Buildings and Grounds, and Printing, and was 
chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses of the 
Senate, and for a part of his term of the Committee on Public 
Buildings and Grounds. It is very seldom the case that a young 
senator on first entering the Senate is placed on so many and so 
important committees. 

Retiring from the Senate, Governor Brown engaged in private 
and professional pursuits, currying into daily life the love of har- 
mony, tolerance, and equal rights he had so long advocated in 
public. He was not, however, allowed to remain in retirement. 
Obeying the call of thousands of his fellow-citizens, he accepted 
the nomination for Governor of Missouri, and sustained by coa- 
lition of the Republicans and Democrats, he was triumphantly 
elected. The vote was as follows: For Brown, 10-1,286; for 
McClurg, 62,369; majority, 41,917. The great issue in this 
campaign was the removal of the prescriptive measures which 
the angry passions incident to the war had placed in force. 

The events of Governor Brown's administration are too recent 
to need recapitulation. His powerful influence has been exerted 
in repairing the social disturbances as well as the material rava- 
ges of the war; in resisting every tendency toward repudiation, 
however plausible may be the pretext, and in securing the just 
rights of all citizens. Under his wise management of her public 
affairs, Missouri is rapidly developing her immense resources, 
and bids fair to rival Pennsylvania as the great iron-producing 
region of the Union. 

Governor Brown has been among the number of those who, 



512 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

thougli identified with the Eepublican party by long years of 
active and earnest labor in its service in the days when it cost 
to be a Eepublican, have yet felt dissatisfied with the present 
administration and its management. So pronounced was this 
dissatisfaction in Missouri that the leading men of what was 
known as the bolting party (that which elected him as governor), 
with Governor Brown at their head, called a convention at Cin- 
cinnati on the 3d, 4:th, and 5th of May, 1872, to - consider the 
situation, and perhaps propose candidates for the Presidency. 

Governor Brown is undoubtedly ambitious, but we think none 
of those who know him would accuse him of having been 
prompted by a spirit of self-seeking in this movement. Whether 
the views they entertained were correct or not, they were un- 
questionably patriotic and in earnest in putting them before the 
people. The result of that convention was one unquestionably 
unexpected by Governor Brown, though so far as the Vice-Presi- 
dency is concerned, it is doubtful if a more judicious selection 
could have been made. His letter of acceptance of the nomina- 
tion, addressed to the committee who had notified him of the 
action of the convention, is manly, honorable, and straight-for- 
ward ; and its manly and generous tone must meet the approval 
of many who are not disposed to sustain the ticket. It is as 

follows : 

Executive Office, Jefferson City. May 31, 1872. 

Gentlemen : Your letter advising me of the action of the Liberal Repub- 
lican Convention at Cincinnati has been received, airtd I return througVi 
you my acknowledgment of the honor which has been conferred upon me. 

I accept the nomination as a candidate for Vice-President, and indorse 
most cordially the resolutions setting forth the principles on which the 
appeal is made to the whole people of the United States. 

A century is closing upon our experience of republican government, and 
while that lapse of time has witnessed a great expansion of our free insti- 
tutions, yet it has not been without illustration also of grave dangers to the 
stability of such a system. Of those successfully encountered it is needless 
to speak ; of those which remain to menace us the most threatening are 
provided against, as I firmly believe, in the wise and pacific measures pro- 
posed by your platform. It has come to be the practice of those elevated 



BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN. 513 

to positions of national authority to regard public service biat as a means 
to retain power. This results in substituting a mere party organization 
for the Government itself, which constitutes a control amenable to no lawg 
or moralities, impairs all independent thought, enables a few to rule the 
many, and makes personal allegiance the road to favor. It requires little 
forecast to perceive that this will wreck all liberties unless there be inter- 
posed a timely. reform of the administration from its highest to its lowest 
station, whicli shall not only prevent abuses, but likewise take away the 
incentive to their practice. Wearied with the contentions that are carried 
on in avarice of spoils, the country demands repose, and resents the efforts 
of officials to dragoon it again into partisan hostilities. And I will zeal- 
ously sustain any movement promising a sure deliverance from the perils 
which have been connected with the war. li is safe to say that only those 
are now to be feared which come of an abuse of victory into permanent 
estrangement. The Union is fortified by more power than ever before, and 
it remains as an imperative duty to cement our nationality by a perfect 
reconciliation at the North. A wide-spread sympathy is aroused in belialf 
of those States of the South wliich, long after the termination of resistance 
to the rightful Federal authority, are still plundered under the guise of loy. 
alty and tyrannized over in the name of freedom. Along with this feeling 
is present, too, the recognition that in complete amnesty alone can be 
found hope of any return to constitutional government as of old, or any 
development of a more enduring unity and broader national life in the fu- 
ture. Amnesty, however, to be efficacious must be real, not nominal;, 
genuine, not evasive. It must carry along witii it equal rights as well as 
equal protection to all ; for the removal of disabilities as to some, with en- 
forcement as to others, leaves room for suspicion that pardon is measured 
by poliiical gain. Especially will such professed clemency be futile in the' 
presence of the renewed attempt at prolonging a svispension of the habeas 
corpus and the persistent result to martial rather than civil law in uphold- 
ing those agencies used to alienate the races wliose concord is most essen- 
tial, and in preparing another elaborate campaign on a basis of dead issues 
and arbitrary intervention. All will rightly credit such conduct as but a 
mockery of amnesty, and demand an administration wliich can give a better 
warrant of honesty in the great work of reconstruction and reform. In the 
array of sectional interests a Republic so widespread as ours is never en- 
tirely safe from serious conflicts. These become still more dangerous when 
complicated with questions of taxation, where unequal burdens are believed 
to be imposed on one part at the expense of another part. It was a bold 
as well as admirable policy in the interest of present as well as future tran- 
quillity to withdraw the decision of industrial and revenue matters from the 
virtual arbitration of an electoral college, chosen with the single animating 
purpose of party ascendancy, and refer tliem for a more direct popular ex- 
pression to each Congress district, instead of being muzzled by some eva- 
sive declaration. 'J'he country is thereby invited to its frankest utter- 
33 



514 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ance, and sections which would revolt at being denied a voice ont of 
deference to other sections would be content to acquiesce in a general 
judgment "honestly elicited." If local government be, as it undoubtedly 
is, the most vital principle of our institutions, much advance will be made 
toward establishing it by enabling the people to pass upon questions so 
nearly affecting their well-being dispassionately through their local repre- 
sentation. The precipitance which would force a controlling declaration 
on tax or tariff through a presidential candidacy is only a disguised form 
of centralization, invoking hazardous reaches of Executive influence. A 
conclusion will be much more impartially determined, and with less dis- 
turbance to trade and finance, by appealing to the most truthful and diver- 
sified local expression. Industrial issues can be thus likewise emancipated 
from the power of great monopolies, and each representative held to fidelity 
toward his immediate constituents. These are the most prominent fea- 
tures of that general concert of action which proposes to replace the present 
administration by one more in sympathy with the aspirations of the masses 
of our countrymen. Of course such concert cannot be obtained by thrust- 
ing every minor or past difference into the foreground, and it will be for 
the people therefore to determine whether these objects are of such mag- 
nitude in the present urgency as to justify them in deferring their adjust- 
ments until the country shall be first restored to a free suffrage, uninflu- 
enced by ofiicial dictation ; and ours becomes, in fact, a free Republic, 
released from apprehensions of a central domination. 

Without referring in detail to the various other propositions embraced 
in the resolutions of the Convention, but seeing how they all contem- 
plate a restoration of power to the people, peace to the nation, purity 
to the Government, that they condemn the attempt to establish an ascen- 
dancy of military over civil rule, and affirm with explicitness the mainte- 
nance of equal freedom to all citizens, irrespective of race, previous condi- 
tion, or pending disabilities, I have only to pledge again my sincere 
co-operation. I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, yours, 

B. Gratz Browx. 

Ill person Governor Brown is of rather less than middle 
height, slightly built, and of nervous organization. His most 
noticeable characteristics, next to vigor and directness of thought, 
are boldness and decision in action, an iron will, indomitable 
perseverance and courage, and great capacity for long, continued 
labor. His speeches and public papers evince scholarship, and 
are always pointed and forcible. His manner in debate is very 
impressive and attractive, and he ranks among the foremost of 
western orators. 



JOHN McAULEY PALMER. 



^e;! OHN McAULEY PALMER was born on Eagle Creek, 
Scott county, Kentucky, September 13th, 1817. His 
ancestors were of English origin, and among the early 
settlers of Virginia ; his father, Louis D. Palmer, having 
emigrated from Northumberland county in that State to Ken- 
tucky, in 1793, where he met and married Ann Tutt, also a 
native of the "Old Dominion," in 1813. A soldier in the war 
of 1812, and naturally fond of adventure, he removed soon after 
the birth of the subject of this sketch, to Christian county, in 
that part of Kentucky then known as the Green River country, 
and purchasing a considerable quantity of the new and cheap 
lands of that section, commenced a pioneer farmer's life. The 
son's educational advantages under these circumstances were 
but meagre, and such as are common to pioneer settlements ; 
yet, such as they were, they were eagerly improved. The 
father also being an ardent Jackson-man, and himself unusually 
fond of reading, managed to secure all the books, newspapers, 
and political documents of the day which he could get hold of, 
especially those of his own party, and these, we may well be- 
lieve, were eagerly read and re-read by his children. He was 
also, even at that early day, an earnest opponent of human 
slavery, and both he and his family were recognized among their 
neighbors as "Anti-slavery Democrats." It was, indeed, the 

uncontrollable promptings of his convictions upon the subject 

515 



516 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

of slavery that determined him in 1831, to seek; q home for liis 
young family in the free States, which he did by settling near 
Alton, in Madison county, Illinois. The death of his wife, in 
1833, virtually broke up the family, and in the spring of 1834, 
John Palmer and his brother Elihu (since a noted minister) en- 
tered " Alton College," so called, an institution which had then 
recently been opened on the " manual labor system," by the 
friends of education in Central Illinois. The boys had more 
energy than means, and in the fall of 1835, John graduated for 
want of money for the further prosecution of his studies. Then 
he went to work for a cooper; next he tried his hand at ped- 
dling; and in the fall of 1838, he taught two quarters in a dis- 
trict school, acceptably to his patrons, but all the time cram- 
ming himself with all the miscellaneous information he could 
glean from novels, history, poetry, sermons, and newspapers. 
In the summer of that year, he first met with the late Senator 
Douglas, then just entering upon his brilliant political career; 
admired him, voted for him, and from him, perhaps, imbibed his 
first political aspirations. The next winter he secured a copy 
of " Blackstone's Commentaries," and after some desultory law 
reading, he entered in the spring of 1839 the office of John L. 
Greathouse, an eminent lawyer at Carlinville, Illinois, whither 
he walked from St. Louis, his entire capital on arriving there 
being fourteen dollars in cash, a well-worn suit of clothes, and 
an extra shirt. His brother, who was now married and settled 
there, offered him a home under his own roof, and he com- 
menced his regular law studies. Less than two months after, at 
the request of the leading Democratic county politicians, he be- 
came a candidate for the office of county clerk, but was defeated. 
In December, 1839, having managed to buy cloth enough for a 
suit of clothes, and finding a tailor who had faith enough in 
him, to make them up on credit, he borrowed five dollars from 



JOHN m'auley palmer. 517 

his preceptor, and set out for Springfield and obtained from the 
Supreme Court a license to practise as attorney and counsellor- 
at-law, in which matter he was much indebted to the kindly 
interest of Mr. Douglas, as was ever remembered with gratitude 
during the long and bitter contests of later years. With his 
license, and a meagre stock of law books, given him by an elder 
and more fortunate professional brother, he commenced practice, 
with such poor results, however, at first, that he was only re- 
strained from seeking a new home by the want of sufficient 
money with which to pay his debts. He participated actively 
as a Democrat in the Presidential canvass of 1840; in 1841, his 
profession yielded him a support ; in 1842, he was married ; in 

1843, he was elected County Probate Judge; and during the years 

1844, '45 and '46, his practice became quite extensive. In 1847, 
he was chosen to the State Constitutional Convention, and in 
1848, was re-elected to the office of Probate Judge, from which 
he had been ousted at the election of the previous year by a 
political combination. In 1849, he was elected County Judge, 
which office he held until his election, in 1851, to the State 
Senate, of which he was member during the sessions of 1852, '53 
and '54. In this latter year he opposed the Nebraska bill, and 
being re-elected to the Senate for 1855, warmly supported the 
free-school system, the Homestead Law, and many other important 
measures. In 1856, he was President of the Illinois Republi- 
can State Convention, at Bloomington ; and was also a delegate 
to the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia, where 
he advocated Judge McLean's nomination, although personally 
favoring Fremont, whom he actively supported in the ensuing 
canvass ; first, however, resigning his seat in the State Senate, 
on the ground that the change in his political connections since 
his election to that body, rendered such a course necessary both 
as a matter of self-respect, and of proper regard for the true 



518 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

principles of a representative government. In 1857 and '58, 
State politics occupied his attention, and in '59 he v/as de- 
feated in an election for Congress. In I860; he was elector at 
large on the Republican ticket, and cast his vote for Lincoln ; 
and in February, 1861, was a delegate to the Peace Congress at 
Washington, where he advocated the call of a national conven- 
tion for the settlement of the impending difficulties, and when 
that proposition failed, he favored the means of compromise 
finally recommended bj that conference. 

But when the war-cloud finally burst, the martial spirit in- 
herited from his father, the old soldier of 1812, united with his 
own inherent convictions on the great questions at issue, irre- 
pressibly urged him to action. On the second call for troops, 
in 1861, he came forward as a common citizen and soldier; but 
his fellow-citizens knew bis worth, and he was unanimously 
chosen Colonel of the 14th Illinois volunteers, first seeing 
active service under his old friend. Gen. Fremont, in the expe- 
dition to Springfield, Missouri, in which State he served during 
the remainder of the year, a portion of the time in command of 
a brigade under Gens. Hunter and Pope. On the 20th of 
December he was commissioned brigadier-general, and during 
February and March, 1862, was with Pope in the expedition 
against New Madrid and Island No. 10, on the Mississippi ; at 
the former place, in command of a division, with which he firmly 
held Riddle's Point against a strong rebel force, who constantly 
strove, both by land and water, to force their way to Tipton- 
ville, which was the only approach to Island No. 10. After the 
capture of Island No. 10, Pope's army proceeded down the river 
to Fort Pillow, which it commenced to bombard, but were soon 
ordered to join Gen. Ilalleck, then before Corinth. En route to 
that place, at Hamburgh, on the Tennessee, Pope reorganized 
his force, and Gen. Palmer was placed in command of the 



JOHN m'auley palmer. 519 

first brigade, first division of the Army of the Mississippi, com- 
posed of four Illinois regiments and a battery, which he han- 
dled with admirable coolness and skill at the battle of Farming- 
ton, May 8th, in which, under extremely critical circumstances, 
he engaged and finally, after a closely-contested fight of several 
hours' duration, escaped from three rebel divisions. On the 
20th of the same month, he was suddenly taken ill from expo- 
sure, and was ordered home by Gen. Pope, remaining on the 
sick list until about August 1st, when he engaged in the efforts 
then making to raise troops, and by authority of the Governor 
organized the 122d Illinois regiment at Carlinville. On the 
1st September, he again took the field at Tuscumbia, Alabama, 
where he was assigned by Gen. Eosecrans to the command of 
the first division of the Army of the Mississippi, and ordered to 
join Gen. Buell. This he accomplished by a forced march 
made in good order, though sorely harassed at every step by 
rebels, and surrounded by a malignant and treacherous popu- 
lace, and reached Buell at Nashville in safety. During the sub- 
sequent so-called blockade of Nashville by the rebel forces, 
Gen. Palmer's and Negley's forces were the occupants and de- 
fenders of that city, the key-point of middle Tennessee, and 
right loyally they held it too. At the fierce fight of Stone's 
river. Gen. Palmer held a conspicuous part, his division occupy- 
ing important and perilous positions, and it was in distinct 
recognition of his gallantry and skill on this occasion that the 
general was nominated and confirmed, November 29th, 1862, 
as Major-General of Volunteers. He was at Chickamauga, in 
1863, and in Sherman's Atlantic campaign, he commanded the 
fourteenth corps, and he fought with distinction at Kenesaw, and 
Peach Tree Creek. He also took part in the "march to the sea." 
Early in the year 1865, he was, at his own request, relieved 
from the command of his corps, and assigned to that of the 



620 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

Federal forces in Kentucky, which State was in a restless and 
critical condition ; some 20,000 Kentuckians being then in the 
rebel army; a large proportion of the remaining population sym- 
pathizing openly with the Confederate cause; the Unionists 
chafing under the loss of their slaves, and the slaves them- 
selves, neither free nor enslaved, being as disturbed as the whites. 
Palmer was eminently the man for the occasion. Brave, col- 
lected, shrewd and prompt; deliberate in judgment, but strong 
in action ; affable and patient with all, but never influenced by 
designing men ; he possessed also statesmanlike qualities of a 
high order, well adapted to grapple with and settle the various 
important questions which were constantly arising in this new 
■field — questions, indeed, which eventually tended to the shaping 
of the national policy. His first and celebrated military order 
of April 29th, 1865, struck the key-note of loyal administration 
by its sharp enunciation of the fact, that the people of that de- 
partment were to be protected "without regard to color or birth- 
place," and " whether free or not," from cruelty and oppression 
"in all cases ;" that, when the state of the country and the organi- 
zation and rules of the civil courts should permit them to en- 
force justice, offenders against the local laws would be handed 
over to them for trial ; but that, at the same time, no person or 
court would be allowed to deprive of liberty, or harass or perse- 
cute any one who had taken the amnesty oath, who had deserted 
the rebel cause, or was engaged in serving, aiding or abetting 
the United States Government. This raised a tremendous howl 
of malignancy against what was termed " military coercion of the 
courts; " but it was followed. May 10th, by another order assert- 
ino- the freedom of the wives and children of all colored men 
enlisted in the Federal army, and loyal Kentuckians were en- 
couraged to help enlistments. Slavery was melting visibly 
away ; the State Legislature refused to approve the Constitu- 



JOHN m'auley palmer. 621 

tional Amendment abolishing it, and so the contest went on. 
At a Union Convention held in Frankfort, the general delivered 
an address pledging the whole power of Government for the pro- 
tection of Union men and free speech, yet boldly claiming that 
" the time has passed in this country, when free speech is to be un- 
derstood as the liberty of mouthing treason." The military super- 
vision which he instituted of the annual election evoked numer- 
ous complaints of military interference with the rights of fran- 
chise, and indictments of army officers were common. Gen. 
Palmer, however, held his ground unflinchingly, and when the 
colored people sought employment jn other parts of Kentucky 
or neighboring States, he assisted them by setting aside, by a 
military order, the statutes forbidding their transportation on 
lines of transit, and suspended the execution of other barbarous 
statutes, informing the municipal authorities that they neither 
could nor should molest persons made free by authority of the 
Federal Government. The President was entreated to remove 
him from command of the district, but declined; then, a suit 
was commenced against him in the name of the State, for aiding 
slaves to escape, but was dismissed by Judge Johnston, on the 
ground that the requisite number of States had adopted the 
Constitutional Amendment before the date of the indictment, 
and that, therefore, all criminal and penal acts of the legislature 
of Kentucky were of no avail. Thus, a Kentucky court gave 
the first practical judicial recognition of the Fourteenth Consti- 
tutional Amendment. A general order followed, proclaiming 
the abolition of slavery, and advising colored people to claim 
their rights on public routes of travel, by legal means. On the 
12th October martial law in Kentucky was abrogated by Presi- 
dent Johnson's proclamation, and on the fifteenth, Gen. Palmer 
telegraphed to the War Department that " department passes " 
were dishonored at the ferries on the Ohio, colored people being 



522 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

refused passage across, saying that he" had ordered the Post 
Commandant at Louisville, to compel the honoring of said 
passes, a step rendered necessary by " the alarm amongst the 
negroes upon the report of the withdrawal of martial law." The 
Secretary of War, however, took the view that, under the cir- 
cumstances, the Government could not properly interfere. Re- 
newed efforts for his removal, instigated by treasonable influences, 
were strongly pressed, but due examination of the application 
and circumstances attending, convinced the administration that 
there was no cause for removal, and again treason and half con- 
firmed loyalty was baffled in its revenge. When at last even 
Kentucky disloyalists had come to the conclusion that the 
power of the United States Government, and the sentiment of 
the whole nation were too strong for them, and yielded, though 
still with a bad grace, to the legislation based on the fourt(?enth 
and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, Gen. Palmer re- 
signed his commission and returned to Illinois. He was active 
in the Presidential canvass of 1868, and did much to aid in car- 
rying the State for the Republican ticket. In the autumn of 
1868, he was elected as Governor Oglesby's successor as Gover- 
nor of Illinois, and in the autumn of 1870 was re-elected, his 
second term of service closing January, 1873. His administra- 
tion has been characterized by great ability, and what, perhaps, 
was hardly to be expected from one who had been so long a 
national soldier, a careful and almost jealous guardianship of 
Stale rights. After the great fire in Chicago, October 8th, 1871, 
there was some conflict of authority unintentional, doubtless, on 
the part of Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan, yet involving some important 
questions of State and national jurisdiction, and resulting in the 
death of a prominent citizen of Chicago, at the hands of one of the 
volunteer sentinels commissioned by the lieut.-general, after the 
State authorities had taken command of the city. Gen. Palmer 



' JOHN m'auley palmer. 523 

protested with great spirit against this invasion of the rights ol 
the State, and though at first the sympathies of Chicago were with 
Gen. Sheridan, and Governor Palmer's course was denounced, 
it was not long before the people generally saw that he was 
right. Governor Palmer has recently declined a renomination, 
and taking strong ground in favor of the Cincinnati nomina- 
tions, is engaged in canvassing the State for them, and for the 
election of the Liberal Republican and Democratic candidate 
for governor, Mr. Koerner. 

A straightforward, honest, earnest man, a gallant soldier, an 
excellent administrative officer, and of such unflinching in- 
tegrity, that it would be easier to turn the sun from his course, 
than him from what he believed to be right, Governor Palmer 
deserves well of his countrymen. 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN, 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 




!lGrH social position, and the influence of a line of ances- 
try who have for generations been of repute in the 
State, are no hindrance to a young man in attaining 
e) place and power, if they are not used offensively ; but 
in our really democratic government and national life, they 
weigh very little unless there is combined with them sterling 
ability and merit. Indeed, as between two boys of very nearly 
equal talent and intellectual power, but one of old and honored 
famil}', and the other a son of the soil, whose early surroundings 
were of the humblest and poorest, the poor boy would have, on 
the whole, a slight advantage in the political prizes of the State 
and nation. 

It is not then because Governor Hoffman can claim in his 
ancestry the honored names of Livingston, Kissam, Thompson, 
and IloflVnan, that he has attained his conspicuous position, but 
because there was in him that real capacity for the public ser- 
vice without which his ancestry would have been of no avail. 

John Thompson Hoffman was born in the village of Sing 

Sing, New York, January 10th, 1828. As we have said, he 

comes of a good stock. His father, an eminent physician, was 

descended from the Livingstons, the Kissams, and the Hofifmans 

of our earlier history. The son, after early training under Rev. 

Dr. Prime, a well known scholar and journalist, entered the 

524 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN. 525 

junior class of Union College in 1843, at the age of fifteen, and 
though compelled bj impaired health to suspend his studies for 
a year, graduated with high honors in 1846. He had already a 
good reputation as a public speaker, and his graduating oration 
on "Sectional Prejudices," both in its matter and delivery was 
so exceptionally excellent as to attract attention. After leaving 
college he commenced the study of law in the office of General 
Aaron Ward and Judge Albert Lock wood at Sins: Sins:. 

Mr. Hojffman's political career began before he had attained 
his majority. In the year 1848, at the age of twenty, he was 
made a member of the State Central Committee bv the Conven- 
tion of Hunker or Hard Shell Democracy. That year will lono- 
be remembered in the political history of the State, Martin 
Van Buren's candidacy for the office of President divided the 
Democracy of New York, causing strong and bitter feelincr be- 
tween his supporters and those of the regular nominee, Lewis 
Cass, and resulting in the overwhelming triumph of the Whio- 
party, Taylor carried the State by a plurality of about 100,000, 
and Hamilton Fish was elected Governor. This, in face of the 
fact. that the aggregate Democratic vote exceeded that of the 
Whigs, Pending the canvass, the State Committee, of which 
Mr, Hoffman was a member, put forth " An Address to the Peo- 
ple," in which the claims of their principles and of their candi- 
dates were advocated with marked ability. Although not then 
a voter, Mr. Ploflfman took the stump for Cass and did effijctive 
service as a speaker. 

On the 10th of January, 1849 — his twenty-first birthday — Mr. 
Hoffman was admitted to the bar. 

In October of that year he removed to New York, where, 
soon after, he formed a law partnership with the late Samuel M. 
Woodruff and Judge William H. Leonard, the firm name being 
Woodruff, Leonard & Hoffman. 



526 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

For ten years Mr. Hofifman devoted himself to the practice of 
his profession, and so marked was his success, that in 1859 he 
was urged by some of the most prominent citizens of New York 
for the position of United States District Attorney. But Presi- 
dent Buchanan objected to him on account of his youth, and 
Judge Roosevelt was appointed to the place. 

In the year 1860, Mr. Hoffman was nominated for Recorder 
of the city of New York, and after a spirited canvass was elected 
to that position. In this instance the office sought the man, Mr. 
Hoffman had declined to have his name presented as a candi- 
date, but he was, nevertheless, nominated by the Tammany Con- 
vention, on the second formal ballot. At the election which fol- 
lowed he was the only candidate on the Tammany ticket who, 
without the support of other organizations, was chosen by the 
people. He entered upon his duties as Recorder on the 1st of 
January, 1861. None so young as he had ever before filled the 
place, but none made a deeper and more favorable impression 
on the public mind. 

His strict ideas of justice,, tempered by the influence of 
a merciful heart; his ample legal acquirements, laid on the foun- 
dation of rare good sense ; his unhalting firmness in the dis- 
charge of duty, and his unquestioned integrity, combined to 
render him a good and upright judge. So firm a hold did he 
gain on the popular heart during his first term as Recorder, in 
the course of which he tried and sentenced many of those en- 
gaged in the famous riots of July, 1863, that the Republican 
Judiciary Convention named him, on the 12th of October, 1863, 
for reelection. Tammany and Mozart also united on him ; the 
newspaper press, regardless of party affiliations, indorsed him, 
and the people rallied enthusiastically to his support and forgot 
party prejudice in their admiration for an honest man. Under 
such flattering circumstances he was again chosen Recorder by 
an almost unanimous vote of the electors. 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN. 527 

On the 21st of November, 1865, John T. Hoflfman was nomi- 
nated for the office of Major of the city of New York by the 
Tammany Hall Democratic Convention, An effort to unite the 
then hostile factions of Tammany and Mozart had proved un- 
successful. Fernando Wood was nominated by the last named 
organization, but declined in favor of John Hecker, the candi- 
date of the Citizens Association, who was warmly advocated by 
the New York Tribune, C. Godfrey Gunther, the then incum- 
bent, had previously announced himself as a candidate for re- 
election, and his claims were indorsed by what was known as 
the McKeon Democracy. The Eepublicans saw in the division 
of the Democratic vote a chance for their own success. They 
nominated Marshall O. Koberts,. and under his leadership they 
inaugurated a most vigorous campaign. At the election which 
followed 81,702 votes were cast, of which Judge Hoffman re- 
ceived 32,820; Mr, Roberts, 31,657; Mr, Hecker, 10,390, and 
Mayor Gunther, 6,758. 

On the 1st of January, 1866, Mr. Hoffman entered upon his 
duties as Mayor. His administration of this office, joined with 
his previous reputation as Recorder, rendered his name familiar 
throughout the State, and during the summer he was fre- 
quently mentioned as the probable candidate of the Democracy 
for Governor. 

Tlie Convention which assembled at Albany on the 11th of 
September was found to be composed of elements which had 
never before mingled in State politics. Old line Democrats 
joined hands with Conservative republicans in an effort to unite 
all the varied forces which opposed the Radical course of Con- 
gress. One-third of the delegates had acted up to that time with 
the Republican party. These were they who favored Andrew 
Johnson's policy and indorsed the Philadelphia Convention. 
They scarcely had faith, however, in the President's ability to 



528 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

carry his ideas to a scccessful issue. Thej were inclined to sing 
with Tennyson — 

" 'Tis true we have a faithful ally, 

But only the Devil knows what he means." 

The Democrats had just lost their great organizing leader, 
Dean Kichmond, and these accessions to their ranks, at such a 
juncture, did not promise to promote harmony. But the Con- 
vention at Albany was a very large one, and it soon became ap- 
parent that if a proper nomination were made for Governor, a 
vigorous campaign could be prosecuted with a reasonable hope 
of success. Under these circumstances an unusual number of 
distinguished names were canvassed by the delegates. Sanford 
E. Church, Henry C. Murphy, William F. Allen, John T. Hoff- 
man, Henry W. Slocuni, John A. Dix, William Kelly, and 
others were mentioned as available candidates. After a fair 
interchange of opinion it was found that a majority of the Con- 
vention favored the choice of Mayor Hoffman, and on the second 
day he was nominated by acclamation, amidst the wildest enthu- 
siasm. The Convention then adjourned until afternoon, and on 
reassembling it was addressed by the candidate himself, who 
had been telegraphed for. His manly speech on that occasion 
made a lasting impression on the minds of the delegates, many 
of whom saw him then for the first time. 

After his nomination. Mayor Hoffman canvassed the State, 
speaking at Elmira, Syracuse, Eochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, 
Brooklyn, New York and other places. His earnest and con- 
vincing arguments were well received by the masses of the peo- 
ple everywhere. But frequent defeat had engendered amongst 
the Democrats a want of confidence in their ability to succeed, 
and the ill-timed tour of Johnson and Grant united the columns 
of the opposition, while it injured rather than benefited the 
party whose interests the President sought to subserve. But, 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN. 529 

notwithstanding these disheartening circumstances, the election 
returns showed a decided gain in the Democratic vote over the 
preceding year. After the election the Democrats awoke to the 
knowledge of the fact that, had they made more effort, they 
might have overcome the small majority by which Governor 
.Fenton was reelected. The lesson came late, but it was not 
altogether lost, as the next year's contest showed. 

In the fall of 1867 Mayor Hoffman was chosen temporary 
chairman of the Democratic State Convention, and delivered a 
speech on that occasion in which he enumerated with admirable 
succinctness the governing principles of the party, and defined 
its attitude in relation to current questions with remarkable 
clearness. 

Mr. Hoffman's first term as Mayor was then drawing to a close.. 
The popularity which he had gained in the discharge of his 
duties made his renomination a foregone conclusion. The Tam- 
many Convention met on the Saturday evening succeeding the- 
State election. A great concourse of people gathered around 
the hall, and when it was announced that Hoffman had been' 
nominated without a dissenting voice, the air rang with the- 
cheers of the satisfied populace. In this canvass Mayor Hoff- 
man had two competitors, Fernando Wood, Mozart Democrat, 
and Wm. A. Darling, Republican. The result of the election 
was significant. Hoffman carried every ward in the city. His 
vote was the largest ever given to any candidate in New York. 
His majority over both his competitors was nearly equal to the 
total vote of either. With this unmistakable indorsement he 
entered upon his second term as Mayor, on the 1st of January,, 
1868. 

His third annual message as Mayor contained a reiteration of 

his views on the question of city government ; which views 

were simply the old theory of Jefferson, that in local affairs the 
34 



6S0 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

local authorities should rule. Simple and sensible as this doc- 
trine appears, its enunciation gained the Mayor some vigorous 
abuse from his political opponents. 

But in despite of this, his popularity had g^o^vn so great that 
when the National Democratic Convention met at New York, in 
July, Mayor Hoffman's name was suggested by many of the 
Western delegates in connection with the Vice- Presidency. But 
he neither sought nor desired this honor, and the nomination of 
Governor Seymour for President placed it out of the power of 
the Convention to urge it upon him. 

On the 13th of August, 1868, the State Committee, together 
with many prominent Democrats, met in Utica, for consultation. 
This meeting developed the fact that Mayor Hoffman would 
again be the Democratic candidate for Governor. The canvass 
of 1866 had brought him in contact with the people who, every- 
where, felt that he had earned this honor, by the earnest and 
effective service he performed in that disastrous year. 

When the Convention met, in September, the name of Sena- 
tor Murphy, who was Mayor Hoffman's chief competitor, was 
withdrawn, and John T. Hoffman was, for a second time, nomi- 
nated by acclamation, for Governor of the State of New York. 

The Republicans had previously placed in nomination .John 
A. Griswold, of Rensselaer. He was heralded as the builder of 
the first '' Monitor," and this service, together with his record in 
Congress, were dwelt upon until considerable enthusiasm was 
aroused among the people in his behalf. 

Both the candidates were young men, and the personal quali- 
fications of each were admitted by all ; but the c^mvass was one 
of peculiar bitterness. Victory seemed within the grasp of 
either party, and the pendency of the Presidential campaign 
roused partisans to extraordinary efforts, and lent additional in- 
terest to the srubernatorial contest. Mavor Hoffman canvassed 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN. 531 

the State in person, and addressed the electors at many of the 
principal towns. His presence inspired confidence among his 
supporters, and his speeches, although they evoked sharp criti- 
cism from Republican sources, cemented the elements of his 
strength. 

At the election, which occurred on the 2d of November, 1868, 
he was chosen Governor by a majority of 27,946. But opposi- 
tion to Governor Hofthian did not cease with the closing of the 
polls. The cry of " fraud " was set up and persisted in by those 
whose candidates had met defeat. This cry is no new catch- 
word for politicians of either party ; but the vigor with which 
it was pressed in this particular instance made it somewhat effec- 
tive in producing a feeling of popular prejudice against Gover- 
nor Hoftman. 

How quickly this feeling was dissipated, after the Governor 
had taken his seat, is a matter of common knowledge. His bit- 
terest enemies became his eulogists; Republican newspapers 
commended his course, and an opposition Legislature indorsed, 
almost without a dissenting voice, every veto message which he 
submitted to their consideration. 

These vetoes were numerous, and were aimed chiefly at the 
evil system of Special Legislation, which cumbers our statute 
books with innumerable unnecessary laws that seldom prove 
beneficial except to individuals whose personal schemes are ac- 
complished at the cost of the tax payers. 

In three sessions of the Legislature, he vetoed, in all, four 
hundred and two bills. In every instance when the Legislature 
was in Session, and had an opportunity, under the Constitution, 
of passing the bill, notwithstanding his veto, they acquiesced in 
his reasons, and allowed the bill to die. Part of this time his 
political opponents held control of both houses. The popular 
judgment has with rare unanimity approved of all his nume* 



532 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

rous vetoes, his political opponents never venturing to find fault 
with them. His is the most extensive and most successful exer- 
cise of the veto power in the history of the United States. 

In 1870, he was again elected Governor by a majority of 
33,096, over Stewart L. Woodford. In July, 1871, occurred the 
so-called Orange riots. A procession of Orangemen had been 
arranged in the city of New York, for the 12th of July, but in 
consequence of threats of its being seriously disturbed by a 
combination of disorderly men, the city authorities had forbid- 
den the procession. Their order to this eft'ect was made public 
on the morning of the eleventh. Governor Hoffman left the 
capital of the State, and came to the city in person, induced the 
eity authorities to revoke their order, issued a proclamation 
promising the Orangemen protection, took personal command of 
the militia, being at his headquarters fifteen hours that day, and 
gave the procession such efficient protection that it marched over 
its proposed route uninjured, although in the riot created by its 
assailants, four soldiers of the escorting force were killed. Of 
the mob, about thirty were killed and many wounded. 

Governor Hoffman has introduced a valuable reform in the 
administration of the pardoning power. During every year of 
his administration he has submitted to the Legislature (and 
thus to the public) a report of the pardons granted, and of the 
reasons which, in each case, governed his action. The law re- 
quires no such reports ; but it is easy to see that his wholesome 
example will have to be followed by his successors. 

During the excitement of 1871 and 1872, over the frauds of 
Tweed, Connolly, Sweeny, and others, in New York city, zeal- 
ous efforts were made by Governor Hoffman's enemies to impli- 
cate him in these frauds ; but when subjected to searching in- 
vestigation, these efforts failed to sustain a single charge made 
agaihst him. That he had been politically affiliated with these 



JOHN THOMPSON HOFFMAN. 538' 

men was unquestionable ; that some of them, before he knew 
of their wrong-doing, had been his personal friends, was also 
true ; but as those who knew the Governor best were satis- 
fied beforehand, not an iota of evidence could be produced 
to show that his hands had ever been soiled with bribes, or 
that he had ever participated in the slightest degree in' these 
gigantic frauds. 

In personal appearance Governor Hoffman is above the me- 
dium height, and has a strong, well-knit frame. His weight is 
180 pounds. His hair is dark and abundant; his forehead is 
broad and particularly developed in what phrenologists call 
perceptive faculties ; his eyes are of a deep brown color ; his 
nose is large; his chin prominent, and his mouth shapely and 
indicative of firmness. He wears a full moustache but no 
beard. 

As a speaker he is plain, clear and straightforward in manner 
as well as in matter. His voice is full, round and sonorous, 
but he practises kw of the tricks of the orator, and seldom 
embellishes his speeches with rhetorical flourishes. 

As a writer he is argumentative rather than imaginative, and 
his style is too analytical to be florid. He possesses, however, 
a certain happy power of poetical description, which he displayed 
to good advantage in the Agricultural Address delivered by 
him before the Ulster County Fair, September, 1869. 

In his intercourse with his fellow man, Governor Hoffman is 
frank and genial; he has nothing of the demagogue's overbear- 
ing pomposity, and he is free from the sycophant's affectation 
of cordiality. He makes no promises which he does not keep ; 
he holds out no false hopes to applicants for his favor; he is 
loyal to truth, and he cherishes his personal integrity as some- 
thing more valuable than any political power. 



EDWIN D. MORGAN, 

LATE UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NEW YORK, 




IT nE ability whicli is developed in an active business life, 
in great commercial transactions, and the rapid changes 
and fluctuations of trade and finance, have proved in 
practice as valuable in the management of the public 
affairs of the State and nation, as that which comes from the 
exclusive study of law. The accomplished merchant, banker, 
or financier, is, indeed, more likely to take a plain, common- 
sense view of the questions of state, and to be unembarrassed 
by the quibbles, chicanery and superfine distinctions and defi- 
nitions of the lawyer, than the man who has been trained in the 
school of precedents, authorities, and legal hair- splitting. To 
this class of business-men, Ex-Gov. Morgan belongs, and the 
signal services he has rendered to the State and nation, are due, 
in perhaps equal measures, to the eminently practical and 
sensible constitution of his mind, and to the thoroughness and 
carefulness of his business training, 

Edwin Dennison Morgan was born in Washington, Berk- 
shire county, Massachussetts, February 8th, 1811. In early 
childhood, he developed a fondness for mathematics, and an 
aptitude for trade, which indicated very plainly his future 
vocation. At the tender age of eleven years, he became clerk 
to a grocer in Hartford, Connecticut, and was so faithful and 

attentive to his employer's interests, and so courteous as a salea- 
534 



EDWIN D. MORGAN. 535 

man, tbat, in 1831, when lie was but twenty years of age, he was 
oftered a partnership in the store, which he accepted. These 
nine or ten years of boyhood and youth had not been confined 
merely to the drudgery of the grocery ; the hours of leisure had 
been diligently employed in the culture of his mind, and the 
next year he was chosen a member of the city council of Hart- 
ford, at a time when it v/as composed of intelligent and able men. 

The little city of Hartford did not long furnish a sufficiently 
wide sphere of action for the aspiring young grocer ; so, in 
1836, he removed to New York city, and engaged in mercantile 
pursuits with his brother, and the firm grew and prospered, till 
in a few years it attained a high rank among the safest and 
most extensive commercial houses of the metropolis, its trans- 
actions reaching to all parts of the United States and Europe. 
In 1849, Mr. Morgan was chosen an alderman of New York, 
and the same year elected to the State Senate, and served there 
for two terms (four years). In 1855, he was appointed com- 
missioner of emigration, and held the office until 1858. His 
early political affiliations were with the Whigs, though he was 
strongly opposed to slavery. When the Republican party was 
formed, he gave it his adhesion, as representing his views, and 
at the National Republican Convention, in Pittsburgh, in 1856, 
was one of its vice-presidents, and from that time till 1864, 
chairman of the National Republican Committee. 

In 1858, Mr. Morgan was nominated by the Republicans as 
their candidate for Governor of the State of New York, and 
elected by a handsome majority. His administration was one 
of the ablest which the State had had for years, and com- 
manded such general approval, that he was nominated for a 
second term without opposition in his party, in 1860, and 
elected by a very heavy majority. This second term was one 
of immense labor, care, and responsibility to the governor He 



636 MEN OP OUR DAT. 

promptly responded to the President's call of April 15th, 1S61, 
and regiment after regiment went forward to Washington, and 
other points on the border, and among them, the gallant New 
York seventh, at whose coming loyal citizens of Washington, 
fbr the first time, felt safe; the twelfth and seventy-first; the fight- 
ing sixty-ninth (Irish) ; and the stately seventy-ninth (Scotch) ; 
the Brooklyn fourteenth, composed, as some writers said, of 
boys who looked as if they ought to be in school, but who 
fought with all the steadiness of veterans ; the twenty-sixth, a 
Utica regiment of great gallantry ; and others of perhaps equal 
merit, all of whom participated in the bloody field of Bull Run. 
The militia could only be required to serve out of the State for 
three months at a time, and Governor Morgan had no sooner 
dispatched these to the seat of war, than he commenced organiz- 
ing, as rapidly as possible, volunteer regiments to serve for 
three years, or the war. 

President Lincoln had commissioned him, in the spring of 
1861, major general of volunteers, in order to facilitate his 
labors in raising and organizing regiments. He held this rank 
till the close of his term of office as governor, (January, 1S63,) 
but declined all compensation. No officer under his command 
was, however, more constantly and laboriously engaged in his 
duties, than the governor. Yet with his systematic business 
habit.*!, the ability acquired by long practice to manage and 
control great enterprises, he was never flurried, but maintained 
constantly the most perfect order, and quietly performed his 
duties, as they required his attention. 

In the twenty mouths of his administration, during the war, 
he raised, organized, and sent forward from his State, two 
hundred and twenty-three thousand troops. In the guberna- 
torial election of 1862, Governor Morgan was not a candidate, 
having withdrawn from the canvass to give place to the gallant 



EDWIN D. MORGAN 537 

soldier, General James S. "Wads worth, who, however, was not 
elected, the Democracy prevailing by the popular cry of " a 
more active prosecution of the war," in electing a man who was 
wholly opposed to the war. The Legislature was, however, 
Republican, and at its session, Governor Morgan was elected 
United States Senator, for the term ending March 4:th, 1869. 

His course in the Senate was uniformly dignified and honora- 
ble to the State which he represented. He seldom spoke ; never 
unless on important questions, and was then always listened to 
with attention. During his entire Senatorial career, he held an 
important position on the Committees on Commerce, Manufac- 
turing, the Pacific Railroad, Military Aftairs, Finance, and Mines 
and Mining, and on all these great national interests he ren- 
dered material and permanent service to the country. On the 
retirement of Secretary Fessenden from the office of Secretary 
of the Treasury-, President Lincoln oflfered Senator Morgan the 
position, but he declined it, much to the r'^gret of the President. 

Since the expiration of his Senatorial term, Ex-Gov. ^[organ 
has taken no active part in political affairs, but has been occu- 
pied with his extensive commercial and financial enterprises. 
He still maintains an interest, however, in the measures and 
progress of the Republican party. 



JOSEPH RUSSELL HAWLEY, 

LATE GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT. 



I 



OSEPH EUSSELL HAWLEY, journalist, soldier and 
politician, was born October 31st, 1826, in Kichmond 
county. North Carolina, where his father, a Congrega- 
\5 tional minister, and a native of New York, was then 
engaged in home missionary work. Some years after he re- 
moved to central New York, where he became a near neighbor 
of Gerrit Smith, at Peterboro', and the boy, gaining his educa- 
tion at good Northern schools, entered Hamilton College, at 
Clinton, New York, whence he graduated in 1847; studied law, 
and responding to the invitation of an uncle, David Plawley, a 
well-known city missionary, at Hartford, Connecticut, went to 
that city about 1850, and commenced the practice of his chosen 
profession. At first he had a "hard row to hoe;" but threw 
himself "body and soul" into the Free Soil movement, and was 
one of a little band of some sixty (among whom were Dr. John 
Braddock, Rev. Dr. Patton, now editor of The Advance, Chicago, 
Illinois, and others) "Free Soilers," who, at every election, for 
years, regularly went to the polls with open ballots. He was 
conspicuously active in State conventions, and deservedly ac- 
quired the reputation of being an active party man, and a forci- 
ble and eloquent speaker on all themes of public importance. 

"Meanwhile his law business had improved, but his taste for 
538 



JOSEPH RUSSELL HAWLEY. 539 

political debate preponderated, and in company with Mr. Faxon, 
he bought out the Rejyuhlican newspaper, and commenced in its 
stead the Hartford Evening Press, of which he assumed the 
editorship, and gave up the practice of law. The Press, which 
was thoroughly Republican in its principles, was a decided suc- 
cess, and Mr. Hawley wielded the editorial pen with pleasure 
and profit until the outbreak of the Civil Rebellion in 1861, that 
event which so suddenly turned the current of so many men's 
labors and lives. Upon the receipt of Governor Buckingham's 
proclamation to the people of Connecticut, Hawley and two 
others met in the office of his paper, and drew up and signed an 
informal enlistment paper, as volunteers in the first regiment ; 
and at a public meeting held the same evening, presided over by 
the Lieutenant-Governor, the list was filled, and the company 
was formed. Hawley was made first lieutenant in Rifle Com- 
pany A, First Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, which was 
mustered into service April 22d, 1861, for three months. By 
the promotion of the colonel of the regiment soon after, Hawley 
became captain of his company, and displayed much activity in 
the organization and equipment of his men, for whom he ordered 
arms on his own personal credit, from the Sharpe Rifle Factory. 
He took a fair share of fighting in the battle of Bull Run, 
July 18th, and his was one of the few companies which did not 
run. The company being disbanded at the end of their short 
term of service, July 31st, we next find him as Lieut.-Colonel 
of the Sixth Connecticut Volunteers, organized August, 1861, 
for three years' service ; which was assigned, upon its arrival in 
Washington, to the Department of the South. It was present at, 
and honorably mentioned in the official reports of the day, in 
the attack on Fort Wallace, November 7th, under Colonel (after- 
wards General) Terry. During 1861, '62, the sixth was at Hil- 
ton Head ; took part in the reduction of Fort Pulaski, April and 



540 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

March; in the Battle of James Island, Jane 14tli ; Pocataligo, 
October 22d; and in the expedition to Port Royal. Meanwhile, by 
the appointment of Col. Terry as brigadier, Lieut.-Colonel Haw- 
ley had become a colonel. He had command of the sixth during 
the operations at Hilton Head, Morris Island, and Fort Wagner, 
in Gilman's campaign against Charleston, in the spring and 
summer of 1863. He was then placed in command at Fernan- 
dina, Florida, obtaining for his men, while there, the breech- 
loading Spencer Rifle, to the merits of which the War Depart- 
ment were blind until near the close of the war; he commanded 
a brigade detailed to destroy railroads near the Suwanee river, 
and also at the battle of Olustee, Florida, February 19th, 1864. 
His Florida service terminated May 4th, by the transfer of him- 
self and command to the army of the James, where he had charge 
of a brigade in Terry's division, in Butler's attack on Bermuda 
Hundred. At Chester Station, Deep Bottom, Deep Run, Cha- 
pin's Farm near Richmond, New Market Road, Darbyton Road, 
Charles City Road, and other places where battles and skir- 
mishes occurred during the summer and fall campaign of 1864, 
Hawley's command was more or less actively engaged. He was 
commissioned September 17th, 1864, as Brigadier-General of Yol- 
uuteers ; when, in November of that year, and in consequence of 
threats of violence at the polls, made by the peace men of the 
North, and alarming frauds discovered, having for their object 
the stuffing of ballot-boxes in New York City with fraudulent 
votes, Gen. B. F. Butler was transferred to the command of the 
Department of the East, he was accompanied by a division of 
soldiers under Gen. Hawley, consisting of 8000 Connecticut 
troops. Hawley's headquarters were on the small steamer, 
Moses Taylor, anchored off the foot of Twenty-third street. 
New York, and the exposure, fatigue and responsibility of that 
service, stowed away in close quarters, on board the boats, etc., 



JOSEPH RUSSELL HAWLET. 541 

with lu\If rations, were quite as severe to the troops engaged in 
it, as most of their experience "at the front." After the elec- 
tion, which, thanks to their presence, passed off peaceably, they 
returned to the army in the field, and Hawley again saw fight- 
ing at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in January, 1865. Subse- 
quently, when Gen. Terry was placed in command at Richmond, 
Virginia, Gen. Hawley was called from his position at Wilming- 
ton, North Carolina, as his chief- of-stafi;j and there the two gal- 
lant soldiers, friends in arms, and wearing the honors so worthily 
won in the fore-front of battle, strove, during the months of 
1865, to bring peace out of hostility, evolve order from chaos, 
and constrnct a broad base upon which might be erected a 
genuine democracy, taking the place of that so-called aristo- 
cracy which had borne such bitter fruits, not only in the 
Old Dominion, but throughout the South. They were, indeed, 
''par nohile fratrum,^^ well fitted for harmonious action, display- 
ing admirable qualities of executive skill, fidelity, military 
vigor, promptness and patriotism. State and city were gov- 
erned with "an iron hand in a velvet glove." They occupied 
as headquarters the residence of the whilom Confederate Presi- 
dent, Jefferson Davis; and there, on the 1st of August, 1865, 
Gen. Hawley was the recipient of a general ofiicer's regulation 
sword, gokl mounted, of rare richness of design, and valued at 
$1150, which was presented to him from the citizens of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, in the presence of a large assemblage of loy- 
alty and beauty, of both civil and military circles. On the 
28th of September, Gen. Hawley received a commission as 
Major-General of Volunteers. The military record of Gen. Haw- 
ley was adorned by acts of courage and composure in the most 
trying circumstances, and by an unfaltering devotion to the 
cause of justice, humanity and freedom. Capable and cool 
under fire, urbane in his dealings with all, yet firm as a rock 



542 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

against all enemies to the republic, wlietlier open or covert, and 
devoting all his energies to the work of suppressing disloyalty, 
he speedily gained the esteem and confidence of his comrades in 
the field, and his friends at home. It was not strange, there- 
fore, that he should have been deemed worthy to guide the 
home councils of the State, which he had so well represented 
abroad. He was elected Governor of the State of Connecticut, 
from 1866, '67. His administration was successful and honor- 
able both to himself and the State; but declining a renomina- 
tion, he returned to his editorial duties, being still as before the 
war connected with the Evening Press. 

In 1867, the Hartford Press and Connecticut Courant were con- 
solidated under the latter title. Gen. Hawley being chief pro- 
prietor and editor. In 1868, he had the honor of presiding over 
the National Republican Convention which nominated Grant 
and Colfax ; and during the present year was chosen President 
of the National Centennial Celebration of the Declaration of 
Independence, which is to be held at Philadelphia, July 4th, 
1876. He was the candidate of the Republican party for United 
States Senator for the term commencing March 4th, 1873, but 
was defeated by the coalition of the Democrats and bolting Re- 
publicans, who re-elected the present Senator, 0. S. Terry. 

Gen. Hawley is in the prime of manhood, a man of fine and 
commanding presence, of great energy and eloquence, and wide 
and generous culture. He is by nature and disposition a reformer, 
and will strike his heaviest blows when he has some giant wrong 
to battle, some monster evil to throttle and destroy. If he lives he 
will yet be heard from in our country's history, and that on the 
right side. His late defeat will only in God's good time prove 
the stepping stone to some higher and better success. There is 
for him a future of honor and fame, if he wills it. 



^. -^ ^ , _ 




KSviKJkVKn hH- A iS.\VAI.T»R,r««»tAD^' 



HORACE GREELEY. 



'/[J GRACE GREELEY was born at Amherst, New Hamp 
^T I shire, on the 3d of February, 1811, being the third 
^(^ of seven children, two of whom had died before his 
c) birth. His father, Zaccheus (a name borne, also, by 
his grandfather and great-grandfather), was a native of Lon- 
donderry (now Hudson), New Hampshire, and was of the 
Massachusetts clan, " mainly farmers, but part blacksmiths," 
who traced their ancestry to one of three brothers who 
emigrated to this country, about 1650, from Nottingham- 
shire, England. All the Greeleys are said to have possessed 
marked and peculiar characters — distinguished for tenacity of 
vitality, opinions, preferences, memory, and purpose. Few of 
them have ever been rich, but all, as far as known, have been 
of respectable social condition, industrious, honest, and loyal. 
Mary Woodburn, the wife of Zaccheus, and the mother of 
Horace Greeley, was also of Londonderry, New Hampshire, of 
that fine old Scotch-Irish stock which settled that toAvn — Irish 
in their vivacity, generosity, and daring ; Scotch in their 
frugality, industry, and resolution — a race in whom Nature 
seems, for once, to have kindly blended the qualities which 
.tender men interesting with those which render them prosper- 
ous. The Greeley and Woodburn farm adjoined, and so it 

543 



54:4 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

came about that Zaccheus GreeJey fouud furor in the eves of 
Mary "Woodburn, and was married to her in the year 1807, 
he being then twenty-five years of age and she nineteen. He 
inherited nothing from his father, and she had no property 
except the usual household portion from hers — so the young 
couple settled down at old Mr. Greeley's— supporting, for 
a while, the old folks and their still numerous minor children; 
but this did not last long. Young married people crave inde- 
pendence, and, ere long, Zaccheus Greeley managed to pur- 
chase, partly with his earnings and partly "on trust," a small 
and not over fertile farm at Amherst, where, as we have seen, 
Horace first saw the light. In New England, farmer's sons learn 
to make themselves useful almost as soon as they can walk 
Feeding: the chickens, driving the cows, carr\ino; wood and 
w ater, and all the light oflices which are denominated " chores^^ 
fall to their lot ; and Horace (as the eldest son of a poor and 
hard working farmer struggling hard with the sterile soil to 
pay ofi" the debt he had incurred in its purchase, and to support 
his increasing family) vras by no means exempt iiom his share 
of daily toil and responsibilities. Grubbing in the corn hills, 
" riding the horse to plow," burning charcoal in the neighbor- 
ing woods, and " picking stones," were among the occupations 
which the boy carried on — and that right faitJi/iiUy^ too, 
although his heart rejoiced not in them. The last named labor 
he seems to have disrelished exceedingly. " Picking stones," 
says he, in his autobiography, " is a never-ending labor on one 
of those New England farms. Pick as closely as you may, the 
next plowing turns up a fresh eruption of boulders and pebbles, 
from the size of a hickory nut to that of a tea-kettle, and as 
this work is mainly to be done in March or April, when the 
earth is saturated with ice-cold water, if not also whitened with 
falling snow, youngsters soon learn to regard it witli detesta- 



HORACE GREELEY. 545 

tion. I iiliallj love tlie ' Granite State,' but could well excuse 
the absence of sundry subdivisions of lier granite." The fact 
seems to have been that, however faithful and careful in the 
performance of these farm duties, repulsive as they were to 
him, Horace's mind, from early infancy, craved knowledge. As 
a very young child, he took to learning with the same prompt 
instinctive and irrepressible love with which a duck is said 
to take to the water. Like many other distinguished men, 
he found his first and best instructor in his mother — who 
possessed a strong mind, a retentive memory, a perpetual over- 
flow of good spirits, a great fondness for reading, and an 
exhaustless fund of songs, ballads, and stories — to which latter,, 
the boy listened greedily, sitting on the floor at her feet, while 
she spun and talked with equal energy. '' They served,"' says 
Mr. Greeley, *' to awaken in me a thirst for knowledge, and a 
lively interest in learning and history." At the maternal knee 
— and ever with the hum of the spinning wheel as an accom- 
paniment — the boy learned, also, to read, before he had learned 
to talk; that is, before he could pronounce the lotiger words;, 
and from the fact that the book lay in her lap, he soon acquired 
a facility of reading from it sidewise, or upside down, as readily 
as in the usual fashion — which knack became " a subject of 
neighborhood wonder and fixbulous exaggeration." At three- 
years of age he could read easily and correctly any of the books- 
prepared for children, and, by the time he was four years old, 
any book whatever. His third winter was spent at the house- 
of his grandfather Woodbarn, at Londonderry, where he at- 
tended the district school, as he continued to do most of the 
winters and some of the summer months, during the next three 
years. At this school he soon attained remarkable distinction 
by his cleverness at spelling^ which was his passion. In this he 

wag unrivalled— no word could ever puzzle him — he spelt in 
35 



546 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

school and out of it — at work or at play — and, for hours at a 
time, he would lie upon the floor of his grandfather's house 
spelling all the hard words which he could find in the Bible 
and the few other books within reach. Of course, he was the 
great hero of the " spelling match" — that favorite diversion of 
New England district schools — and there are some still living 
who love to recount how Horace, then a little " white, tow- 
headed boy," would sometimes fall asleep (for these •' matches " 
were generally held in the evening) and when it came his turn, 
his neighbors would give him an anxious nudge, and he would 
wake instantly, spell off his word, and drop asleep again in a 
moment. Frequently carried to school when the snow was too 
deep for him to wade through, on his aunt's shoulder, the eager 
little fellow stoutly maintained his place among larger and 
older scholars, and manfully mastered the slender information 
which he could glean from the pages of Webster's Spelling 
Book (then displacing Dil worth's), Bingham's Grammar, called 
"The Ladies' Accidence" and "The Columbian Orator." This 
latter, the first book he ever owned, had been given him by an 
uncle, while he lay sick with the measles, in his fourth year, at 
his grandfather's. It was his prized text book for years, and he 
learned all its dialogues, speeches, extracts of poetry, by heart, 
among others that well-known oration, so familiar to our boyish 
memories, commencing, 

" You'd doarce expect one of my age. 
To speak in public on the stage." 

"When he was six years old, his father removed to a larger 
farm in Bedford, New Hampshire, which he had undertaken 
to work " on shares," and until his tenth year, Horace's school- 
ing was combined with a pretty fair share of work. " Here," 
he says, "I first learned that this is a world of hard work. 



HORACE GREELEY. 547 

Often called out of bed at dawn to " ride horse to plow" among 
the growing corn, potatoes, and hops, we would get as much 
plowed by nine to ten o'clock A.M., as could be hoed that day, 
when I would be allowed to start for school, where I sometimes 
arrived as the forenoon session was half through. In winter, 
our work was lighter ; but the snow was often deep and drifted 
the cold intense, the north wind piercing, and our clothing thin; 
besides which, the term rarely exceeded, and sometimes fell 
short of, two months. I am grateful for much — schooling in- 
cluded — to my native State; yet, I trust her boys of to-day 
generally enjoy better facilities for education at her common 
schools than they afforded me half a century ago." Young 
Greeley had no right to attend the school at Bedford, as he did 
not belong to the district — yet he was complimented by a per- 
mission granted by an express vote of the school committee, 
that " no pupils from other towns should be received" at their 
school, '■'except Horace Greeley almie^ Among the few adjuvants 
to knowledge which the boy enjoyed, was the weekly newspaper 
which came to his father's house, " The Farmerh Cabinet^'' mild 
in politics and scanty, if not heavy, in its literary contents ; but, 
for all that, a " connecting link" between the little homestead 
and the great outside, unknown world. Perhaps it uncon- 
sciously strengthened the youth's impulse toward becoming a 
printer and a newspaper man. 

For, it is related of him, that previously to this, while one 
day watching, most intently, the operation of shoeing a horse, 
the blacksmith observed to him : " You'd better come with me 
and learn the trade," " No," was the prompt reply, " I'm going 
to be a printer," a positive choice of a career by so diminutive 
a specimen of humanity, which mightily amused the bystanders. 
In his tenth year, however, a change had come to the family 
fortunes. His father, like many other hard-working farmers in 



548 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

New Hampsliire, was not able to " weather the storm," which 
made the year 1820 memorable to many as " hard times." Ho 
failed, and having made an " arrangement with his creditors" (for 
he was a truly honest man), gave up his farm, temporarily, and 
removed to another in the adjoining town of Bedford, where he 
commenced the raising of hops, mostly on shares. In two 
years, however, despite his industry, he came back to his old 
Amherst home poorer than ever ; and, finally, became utterly 
bankrupt, was sold out by the sheriff, and fled from the State 
to avoid arrest. He wandered away to Westhaven, Katland 
county, Vermont, where he fortunately succeeded in hiring a 
small bouse, to which, in January, 1821, he brought his family. 
Stripped of all but the barest necessities, the little family now 
commenced life literally anew. Horace's life at "Westhaven, 
during the next five years, was much the same as before — 
plenty of hard work — rough fare, and an insatiable cramming 
of book knowledge, varied, sometimes, by playing draughts, or 
" checkers," in which game he is a great proficient. Yet the 
Yankee element was strong within him. He was always doing 
something, and he always had something to sell. He saved 
nuts and pitch pine roots for kindling wood, exchanging them 
at the country store for articles which he needed. 

The only out-door sport which the boy seemed to like, was 
" bee-hunting," which frequently yielded a snug little sum of 
pocket-money ; and when a peddler happened along with books 
in his wagon, or pack, the hard earned pennies were pretty sure 
to leave Horace's pockets. But, while he could mm, he had 
little or no faculty of hargaining^ or of making money. In hia 
eleventh year, he heard that an apprentice was wanted in a news- 
paper of&ce at Whitehall ; and, true to his old fancy of becom- 
ing a printer, he trudged over there on foot, a distance of nine 
miles, but was refused the place on account of his youth. 



HORACE GREELEY. 549 

Westhaven, at tliat time, was a desperate place for drinking, 
and Horace and his brother had early imbibed a thorough aver- 
fiion to the use of intoxicating liquors and tobacco. Asking his 
father, one day, what he'd give him if he would not drink a 
drop of liquor till he was twenty-one; his father thinking it, 
perhaps, a mere passing whim of the boy's, replied " I'll give 
you a dollar." It was a bargain, and from that day to this, 
Horace has not knowingly taken into his system any alcoholic 
liquid, and has been a distinguished and fearless advocate of 
teetotalism. During his Westhaven life, also, he became— 
although surrounded by orthodoxy, and descended from ortho- 
dox parents — by the natural process of his own reasoning, a 
Universalist — yet he never entered a church, or heard a sermon, 
of that faith, until he was twenty years old. This all arose 
from his chance reading, in a school book, of the history of 
Demetrius Poliorcetes, one of Alexander the Great's generals, 
whose conduct towards the ungrateful Athenians, as related by 
the earlier historians, prese-nts an example of magnanimity, as 
sublime as it is rare. Reflecting with admiration on this case, 
Greeley, young as he was, " was moved," as he says, " to inquire 
if a spirit so nobly, so wisely transcending the mean and savage 
impulse which man too often disguises as justice, when it is in 
essence revenge, might not be reverentially termed divine ;" 
in fact, if it did not " image forth" the attitude of an all- wise, 
just, yet merciful God, toward an erring humanity. And 
though, in his career, the subject of our sketch has confined 
himself, by the very necessity of his nature, chiefly to the 
advancement of material interests, yet it is not to be doubted 
that this early change of religious belief gave to his subsequent 
life much of its direction and character. 

By the spring of 1826, Horace had exhausted the schools and 
the capabilities of his teachers, and was impatient to be at the 



550 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

types. To his oft repeated importunities, his father strongly 
objectei — partly, because he needed the lad's help at home oa 
the far.n ; partly, because he feared that one so young, so gentle, 
awkward, and with so little " push" about him, would be unable 
to battle his way among strangers. But, one day, Horace saw 
in the Northern Spectator^ a weekly sheet (Adams in politics), 
published at East Poultney, Vermont, eleven miles from hia 
home, a notice of a " boy wanted" in the office. Wringing from 
his father a reluctant consent to his applying for the place, he 
walked over to Poultney, came to an understanding with the 
proprietors, and returned home. A few days later, April 18th, 
1826, his father took him down to the office and entered into a 
verbal agreement with the parties, for his son's .services, to the 
effect that he was to remain at his apprenticeship with them till 
he was twenty years of age, be allowed his board only for 
six months, and thereafter $40 per annum for clothing. Leav- 
ing Horace at work in the printing office, Mr. Greeley returned 
home ; and, shortly after, removed his residence to Wayne, 
Erie county, Pennsylvania. The new apprentice's experience 
at Poultney is thus related by himself: 

"The organization and management of our establishment 
were vicious ; for an apprentice should have one master, and I 
had a succession of them, and often two or three at once. These 
changes enabled me to demand and receive a more liberal allow- 
ance for the later years of my apprenticeship ; but the office was 
too laxly ruled for the most part, and, as to instruction, every 
one had perfect liberty to learn what he could. In fact, as but 
two or at most three persons were employed in the printing 
department, it would have puzzled an apprentice to avoid a 
practical know lei Ige of whatever was done th re. I had not 
been there a year before my hands were blistered and my back 
lamed by working off the very consid.;rable edition of the paper 
on an old-fashioned, two-pull Eam ige (wooden) press — a task 
beyond mj boyish strength — and I can scarcely recall a day 



HORACE GREELEY. 551 

wherein we were not hurried by our work. I would not imply 
that I worked too hard — yet I think few apprentices work more 
steadily and faithfully than I did througliout the four years and 
over of my stay in Poultney. While I lived at home, I had 
always been allowed a day's fishing, at least once a month, in 
spring and summer, and I once went hunting; but I never 
fished, nor hunted, nor attended a dance, nor any sort of party 
or fandango, in Poultney. I doubt that I even played a game 
of ball. Yet I was ever considerately and even kindly treated by 
those in authority over me, and I believe I generally merited 
and enjoyed their confidence and good-will. Very seldom was 
a word of reproach or dissatisfaction addressed .to me by one of 
them. Though I worked diligently, I found much time for 
reading, and might have had more, had every leisure hour been 
carefully improved. * * * They say that apprenticeship is 
distasteful to and out of fashion with the boys of our day ; if 
so, I regret it for their sakes. To the youth who asks, ' How 
shall I obtain an education ?' I would answer, 'Learn a trade 
of a good master.' I hold firmly that most boys may thus bet- 
ter acquire the knowledge they need than by spending four 
years in college." 

lie speedily became one of the leading members of the vil- 
lage Debating Society, or Lyceum, as it was styled ; and, to use 
the words of an old comrade, " whenever he was appointed to 
speak or to read an essay, he never wanted to be excused ; he 
was always ready. He was exceedingly interested in the ques- 
tions which he discussed, and stuck to his opinion against all 
opposition — not discourteously, but still he stuck to il, replying 
with the most perfect assurance to men of high station and of 
low. He had one advantage over all his fellow members; it 
was his memory. He had read every th:ng, and remembered 
the minutest details of important events; dates, names, places, 
figures, statistics — nothing had escaped him. He was never 
treated as a boT/ in the society, but as a man and an equal ; and 



552 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

his opinions were considered with as mucli deference as those 
of the judge or the sheriff — more, I think. To the graces of 
oratory he made no pretence, but he was a fluent and interest- 
ing speaker, and had a way of giving an unexpected turn to the 
debate by reminding members of a fact, well known but over- 
looked ; or by correcting a misquotation, or by appealing to 
what are called first principles. He was an opponent to be 
afraid of; yet his sincerity and his earnestness were so evident, 
that those whom he most signally floored liked him none the 
less for it. lie never lost his temper. In short, he spoke iu 
his sixteenth year just as he speaks now." It may be added 
that then, as now, he was utterly oblivious of the niceties — we 
had almost said the proprieties — of dress, and his ill-fitted, and 
really insufiicient clothing, excited the pity of a few considerate 
ones, and the frequent derision of many unthinking ones. But 
the forty dollars a year which was allowed him by his employ- 
ers for clothing, was carefully husbanded and sent to his father, 
who was struggling with the difficulties of a new farm in the 
wilderness on the other side of the Alleghanies ; and twice, 
during his Poultney residence, he visited those beloved parents, 
traversing the distance of six hundred miles, partly on foot, and 
partly by the tedious canal boat Among the incidents of his 
sojourn in Poultney that which made the most impression on 
his mind, was a fugitive slave chase. The State of New York 
had abolished slavery years before, but certain born slaves 
were to remain such till twenty-eight years old. One of these 
youDg negroes decamped from his master, in a neighboring 
New York town, to our village ; where he was at work, when 
said master came over to reclaim and recover him. "I never 
saw," says Mr. Greeley, " so large a muster of men and boys so 
suddenly on our village-green as his advent incited ; and the 
result was a speedy disappearance of the chattel, and the return 



HORACE GREELEY. 553 

of his master, disconsolate and niggerless, to the place whence 
he came. Every thing on our side was impromptu and instinc- 
tive ; and nobody suggested that envy or hate of " the South," 
or of New York, or of the master, had impelled the rescue. 
Our people hated injustice and oppression, and acted as if tliey 
couldn't help it^ 

In June, 1830, the Spectator and its office were discontinued, 
and Greeley, released from his engagement some months earlier 
than he had expected, started off, with little else than a ward- 
robe which could be stuffed into his pocket, a sore leg, a reten- 
tive memory and a knowledge of the art of printing — to see his 
father. After a while we find him working for eleven dollars 
per month, in the office of a "Jackson paper," at Sodus, New 
York, and still later for fifteen dollars per month in the office 
of the Gazette, a weekly paper published at Erie, Pennsylvania. 
At first he was refused work on account of his extremely ver- 
dant appearance; but, finally, was taken in on trial and ere 
long was in high favor with all who knew him. Seven months 
passed away, and again we find our hero trying his fortunes in 
a new place — this time, in New York itself His arrival and 
adventures in the " Great Metropolis," in which he was, in the 
course of years, to become so well known, much talked about, 
and useful a citizen, are best described in his own words. 

"It was, if I recollect aright, the 17th of August, 1831. I 
was twenty years old the preceding February; tall, slender, 
pale and plain, with ten dollars in my pocket, summer clothing 
worth perhaps as much more, nearly all on my back, and a 
decent knowledge of so much of the Art of Printing as a boy 
will usually learn in the office of a country newspaper. But I 
knew no human being within two hundred miles, and my un- 
mistakably rustic manner and address did not favor that imme- 
diate command of remunerating employment which was my 
most urgent need. However, the world was all before me ; my 



554 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

personal estate, tied up in a pocket-handkerchief, did not at all 
encumber me ; and I stepped lightly off the boat and away from 
the sound of the detested hiss of escaping steam, w.'dking into 
and up Broad street in quest of a boarding-house. I found and 
entered one at or near the corner of Wall ; but the price of 
board given me was six dollars per week ; so I did not need the 
giver's candidly kind suggestion that I would probably prefer 
one where the charge was more moderate. Wandering thence, 
I cannot say how, to the North River side, I halted next at 168 
West street, where the sign of " Boarding" on a humbler edifice 
fixed my attention. I entered, and was offered shelter and 
subsistence at $2.50 per week, which seemed more rational, and 
I closed the bargain. 

Having breakfasted, I began to ransack the city for work, 
and, in my total ignorance, traversed many streets where none 
could possibly be found. In the course of that day and the 
next, however, I must have visited fully two thirds of the 
printing-offices on Manhattan island, without a gleam of success. 
It was mid-summer, when business in New York is habitually 
dall; and my youth and unquestiouable air of country green- 
ness must have told against me. When I called at the Journal 
of Commerce^ its editor, Mr. David Ilale, bluntly told me I was 
a runaway-apprentice from some country office ; which was a 
very natural, though mistaken, presumption. I returned to my 
lodging on Saturday evening, thoroughly weary, disheartened, 
disgusted with New York, and resolved to shake its dust from 
my feet next morning, while I could still leave with money in 
my pocket, and before its alms-house could foreclose upon me. 

But that was not to be. On Sunday afternoon and evening, 
several young Irishmen called at Mr. MoGolrick's, in their holi- 
day saunterings about town; and, being told that I was a young 
printer in quest of work, interested themselves in my effort, 
with the spontaneous kindness of their race. One among them 
happened to know a place where printers were wanted, and 
gave me the requisite direction ; so that, on visiting the designa- 
ted spot next morning, I readily found employment ; and thus, 



HORACE GREELEY. 555 

when barely three days a resident, I had found anchorage in 
New York. 

The printing establishment was John T. West's, over 
McElrath & Bangs' publishing-house, 68 Chatham street, and 
the work was at my call, simply because no printer who knew 
the city would accept it. It was the composition of a very 
small (32mo) New Testament, in double columns, of Agata 
type, each column barely twelve ems wide, with a centre col- 
umn of notes in Pearl, barely four ems wide : the text thickly 
studded with references by Greek and superior letters to the 
notes, which of course were preceded and discriminated by 
corresponding indices, with prefatory and supplementary re- 
marks on each Book, set in Pearl, and only paid for as Agate. 
The type was considerably smaller than any to which I had 
been accustomed ; the narrow measure and thickly-sown Italics 
of the text, with the strange characters employed as indices, 
rendered it the slowest and by far the most difficult work I had 
ever undertaken; while the making up, proving, and correcting, 
twice and even thrice over, preparatory to stereotyping, nearly 
doubled the time required for ordinary composition. I was 
never a swift type-settter ; I aimed to be an assiduous and cor- 
rect one; but my proofs on this work at first looked as though 
they had caught the chicken-pox, and were in the worst stage 
of a profuse eruption. For the first two or three weeks, being 
sometimes kept waiting for letter, 1 scarcely made my board: 
while, by diligent type-sticking thrcjugh twelve to fourteen 
hours per day, I was able, at my best, to earn but a dollar per 
day. As scarcely another compositor could be induced to work 
on it more than two days, I had this job in good part to myself, 
and I persevered to the end of it. I had removed, very soon 
after obtaining it, to Mrs. Mason's shoemaker boarding-house 
at the corner of Chatham and Duane streets, nearly opposite my 
work; so that I was enabled to keep doing nearly all the time 
I did not need for m -als and sleep. When it was done, I was 
out of work for a fortnight, in spite of my best efforts to find 
more; so I attended, as an unknown spectator, the sittings of 
the Tariff Convention, which was held at the American lusti- 



556 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

tute, north end of the City Tlall Park, and presided over by 
Hon. William Wilkins, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I next 
found work in Ann street, on a short-lived monthly, where my 
pay was not forthcoming ; and the next month saw me back at 
West's, where a new work — a commentary on the Book of 
Genesis, by Rev. George Bush — had come in ; and I worked ou 
it throughout. The chirography was blind ; the author made 
many vexatious alterations in proof; the page was small and 
the type close ; but, though the reverse of fat^ in printers' jar- 
gon, it was not nearly so abominably lean as the Testament; 
and I regretted to reach the end of it. When I did, I was 
again out of work, and seriously meditated seeking employment 
at something else than printing; but the winter was a hard one, 
and business in New York stagnant to an extent not now con- 
ceivable." 

From January, 1832, and through the dreary "cholera sum- 
mer," Greeley worked on the Spirit of the Times^ a nevv sporting 
paper, and there gained the devoted friendship of its foreman, 
Mr. Francis V. Story, with whom he afterwards entered into 
partnership. The main dependence of their business was the 
printing of Sylvester's "Bank-Note Reporter;" and the publi- 
cation of Dr. II, D. Shepard's "penny-paper," The Morning Post, 
• and the pioneer of the cheap-for-cash dailies in New York City. 
Hiring rooms on the south-east corner of Nassau and Liberty 
streets, the young " typos" invested their scanty capital (less 
than $200) ; obtained $-iO worth of material, on credit, from 
Mr. George Bruce, the eminent type founder, and coinnienced 
their business career. The Post, however, was " ahead of the 
Age" — and died, when scarcely a month old, leaving its printers 
"hard aground on a lee shore, with little prospect of getting 
off." Fortunately, however, they escaped total bankruptcy, by 
a successful sale of the wrecked paper to another party, in 
whose hands it was teetotally extinguished, "forever and aye." 
Working early and late, looking sharply on every side for jobs, 



HORACE GREELEY. 557 

and economizing to the last degree, the firm were beginning to 
make decided headway, when Mr. Story was drowned, in June, 
1833. His place was taken by his brother-in law, Mr. Jonas 
Winchester — since widely known in the newspaper world ; and 
again the concern was favored with steady and moderate pros- 
perity, until, in March, 1834, they issued the fir.st number of 
The New Yorker^ a large, fair, cheap weekly, devoted to current 
literature, etc., of which Mr. Greeley took the sole editorial 
supervision for the next seven years and a half. Two years 
after its birth the partnership was dissolved and Greeley took the 
New Yorker, which held its own pretty well until the commer- 
cial revulsion of 1837. In July, 1836, Mr. Greeley had mar- 
ried, deeming himself worth $5000 and the owner of a remune- 
rative business. To a man of so singularly independent and 
honest a character as his, the debts incurred were a source of 
the most terrible mental anxiety and suffering. In his autobi- 
ography, he speaks most feelingly of the horrors of bankruptcy 
and debt, closing with these intense but truthful remarks : 

" For my own part — and I speak from sad experience — I 
would rather be a convict in State prison, a slave in a rice- 
swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. 
Let no young man misjudge himself unfortunate, or truly poor, 
so long as he has the full use of his limbs and faculties and is 
substantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, 
contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, are disagreeable; but debt 
is infinitely worse than them all. And, if it had pleased God 
to spare either or all of my sons to be the support and solace 
of my declining years, the lesson which I should have most 
earnestly sought to impress upon them is — "Never run into 
debt! Avoid pecuniary obligation as you would pestilence or 
famine. If you have but fifty cents, and can get no more for a 
week, buy a peck of corn, parch it and live on it, rather than 
owe any man a dollar?" Of course, I know that some men 
must do business that involves risks, and must often give notes 



658 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and other obligations, and I do not consider liini really in debt 
who can lay his hands directly on the means of paying, at some 
little sacrifice, all he owes; I speak of real debt — that which in- 
volves risk or sacrifice on the one side, obligation and depend- 
ence on the other — and I say, i'roin all such, let every youth 
humbly pray God to preserve him evermore 1" 

The New Yorker came to an end in March, 1841, with an out- 
standing book account of some $10,000 due to its editor and 
proprietor, of which, it is needless to say, he neveY afterwards 
saw the first cent. Among the " memorabilia" of its history is 
the fact that Hon. Henry J. Eaymond, late the chief editor of 
the New York Times, and a "power" in the American press, 
commenced his editorial life as assistant editor of the New 
Yorker on a salary of $8 a week. 

While running this paper, Mr. Greeley, in addition to supply- 
ing leading articles to the Daily Whig for several months, 
undeuook, in March, 1838, the entire editorship of the Jeffer- 
sonian, a weekly campaign paper, published lor a year, at 
Albany, by the Whig Central Committee of the State of New 
York. The sheet had a circulation of 15,000, its editor $1000 
salary and it was a " rousing" aond political paper, aiming " to 
convince,not to inflame, to enlighten, not to blind." The energy, 
industry, and courage (mental as well as physical), required 
to edit a weekly paper in New York City and another in 
Albany, can be imagined only by those who understand the 
nature of an editor's duties. Into the Harrison campaign of 
1810, Greeley threw his whole energies, issuing, on the 2d of 
May, the first number of The Log Calnn, a weekly ])aper, 
appearing simultaneously in New York and Albimy, for the 
six months' campaign. It was conducted with wonderful spirit 
and made an unprecedented hit, 48,000 of the first number being 
sold in a day and the issue increasing to between 80,000 and 



HORACE GREELEY. 559 

90,000 copies per week, Greeley's own interest in the questions 
at issue was most intense, and his labors were incessant and 
arduous. He wrote articles, he made speeches, he sat on com- 
mittees, he travelled, he gave advice, he suggested plans, wliilc 
he had two newspapers on his hands and a load of debt upon 
his shoulders." Designed only as a campaign paper, the Log 
Cabin survived the emergency for which it had been created, 
and, as a family political paper, continued with moderate suc- 
cess until finally merged, together with the New Yorker, in the 
Tribune. 

The Tribune first saw light on the 10th of April, 1841, with 
a " start" of 600 subscribers, and a borrowed capital of $1000. 
1 15 first experiences were not altogether promising, but it was 
full of yZy/i^, and the foolish attempt of a rival. The Sun, to crush 
it, aroused the pugnacity of its editor to its fullest extent. The 
public became interested, also ; and by its seventh week, it had 
an edition of 11,000. New presses became necessary — adver- 
tisements poured in ; and then — just " in the nick of time" — Mr. 
Thomas McElrath was secured as a business partn(ir, and with 
him came alsf) the order and efficiency, wliic^h huve rcnderc'd the 
Tribune estal;lishrnent one of the best conducted ncwsp;q)cr 
offices in the world. 

Now came another epoch in Horace Greeley's career — viz.: 
that of Fourierism,. A Socialist in theory he had Ijccn for 
years before the Tribune was commenced — and, when Albert 
Brisbane returned from Paris, in 18-11, full to overflowing of 
the principles of the Apostle of the Doctrine of Association, 
Greeley became one of his earliest and most devoted followers. 
Jie wrote, talked, lectured on Fourierism; — but, with the 
famous six months' newspaper discussion of the subject, in 18-10, 
between Greeley and his former lieutenant, H. J. Raymond, 
then of the Courier and Pluquirer — the subject died out of the 



560 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

public mind. In April, 1842, the Tribune, which had started 
as a penny paper, commenced its second volume at two cents 
per number, without any appreciable loss of its subscription. 
At the same time, Greeley and McElrath commenced a monthly 
]nagazine, called " The American Lahorer^^'' devoted chiefly to the 
advocacy of protection. Gradually, also, they got into a some- 
what extensive book publishing business, which, however, 
proved unprofitable and was relinquished, excepting the 
" Whig Almanac," a valuable statistical and political compend, 
which, in 1868, enjoyed the honor of being entirely reprinted 
by the process of photo-lithography. In 1843, began the 
Evening Tribune, and in 1845, the Semi-Weekly. Water-Cure, 
the Erie Railroad, Irish Repeal, Protection and Clay were the 
principal objects to which the Tribune gave the full weight of 
its powerful influence. In 1845, the Tribune office was burned; 
and that year and the two following were years full of hard 
knocks received, and good earnest blows heartily given, against 
Capital punishment, the Mexican War, Slavery, Orthodoxy, 
the Native American party, the drama, etc., etc. In 1848, Mr. 
Greeley was chosen to represent the Congressional District in 
the House of Representatives for a short session; and hardly 
was he seated there before he introduced a Land Reform Bill ; 
" walked into" the tariff; made in the Tribune a grand expose 
of the Congressional Mileage system (which roused the wrath 
of that honorable body and became the talk of the nation), and 
"pitched into," generally, all the money-spending, time-wasting 
expedients by which public interests and business were delayed. 
The tide of corruption, however, was too great to be success- 
fully stemmed by one honest man, and Greeley's three months 
career as a Congressman may be summed up in this, that " as a 
member of Congress, he was truer to himself and dared more in 



HORACE GREELEY. 561 

behalf of his constituents than any man who ever sat for one 
session only in the House of Eepresentatives." 

Meantime, the Tribune establishment was on the high road 
to success; and was valued by competent judges at $100,000, a 
low estimate perhaps, when we consider that its annual profits 
amounted to over $30,000. Both of its proprietors were now in 
the enjoyment of incomes more than sufl&cient for what they 
needed — and now they determined to give a practical proof of 
their belief in a doctrine which they had earnestly advocated 
for several years previous — viz.: the advantages of associated. 
labor and profit. The property was divided into one hundred 
$1000 shares, each of which entitled the holder to one vote in. 
the decisions of the company — thus conferring the dignity and; 
advantage of ownership on many interested parties, while the^ 
contesti:hg power practically remained with Greeley and. 
McElrath. It is needless to say that the " Tribune Association"' 
has been an eminent success. 

In 1850, a volume of Mr. Greeley's lectures and essays was; 
published, under the title of " Hints toward Eeforra." In April,, 
1851, Mr. Greeley visited England, to view the " World's Fair"' 
and, on his arrival there, found that he had been appointed, by 
the American commissioner, as a member of the jury on hard- 
ware. The first month of his brief holiday was conscientiously 
employed in the discharge of the tedious and onerous duties, 
thus assigned him ; — and, at the banquet, given at Richmond, 
by the London commissioners to the foreign commissioners,, 
he had the honor of proposing, with a speech, the health of 
Joseph Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace. He also didi 
good service to the cause of cheap popular literature, by his 
evidence given, as an American newspaper editor, before two 
sessions of a committee appointed by Parliament for the con- 
sideration of the proposed repeal of " t^^^^j^ on knowledge," viz.: 
36 



562 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the duty on advertisements, and on every periodical containing 
news. A rapid " run" througli the continent, and Greeley was 
back in his sanctum in the Tribune building, by the middle of 
August, and his experiences were given to the world in an 
interesting volume entitled, " Glances at Europe." With the 
defeat of General Scott, and the annihilation of the old Whig 
party, in November, 1852, the Tribune ceased to be a party 
paper, and its editor a party man. The same year he performed 
a sad but grateful token of regard to the memory of one whom 
he devotedly admired, by finishing Sargent's Life of Henry 
Clay. And, as he found himself now released from the shackles 
of party politics, he began to yearn for the repose and calm 
delights of moral life. He purchased a neat farm of fifty acres 
in Westchester county, where, in such scanty leisure as his 
editorial life allows him, he has put into practical operation 
some of his long cherished theories in regard to farming, etc. 

In 1856, he published an able " History of the struggle for 
Slavery Extension, or Restriction, in the United States, from 
1787 to 1856 ;" and, in 1859, he made a trip to California, via 
Kansas, Pike's Peak and Utah, being received, at many princi- 
pal towns and cities, by the municipal authorities and citizens, 
whom he addressed on politics, the Pacific railroad, tem- 
perance, etc., and on his return, published the facts in regard to 
the mining regions which he had observed, in a duodecimo 
volume, which sold largely. 

Into all the momentous issues of the war of the rebellion, Mr. 
Greeley, as was to have been expected from ms position and 
his antecedents, threw the full weight of his immense influence 
and endeavors. During the great " Draft Riot" of New York, 
in July, 1863, he was " marked" as an obnoxious person, and 
a house where he had formerly boarded was entered and com- 
pletely sacked by the mob. The office of the Tribune was also 



HORACE GREELEY. 563 

attacked by tlie mob, who sought diligently for him, but tte 
gallant efforts of the police soon dispersed them. In July, 
1864, he was induced, by the pretended anxiety of certain 
parties claiming to represent the Confederate Government, and 
who desired to enter into negotiations for peace, to use his per- 
sonal influence with President Lincoln for an interview, but 
Mr. Lincoln's adroitness soon elicited the fact that these self- 
styled pacificators had no real authority to act in the premises, 
and the matter resulted only in the issue of the celebrated '' To 
whom it may concern" message. 

In 1865-67, Mr. Greeley's history of the war was published in 
two volumes, under the title of *' The American Conflict," had an 
immense sale, and is justly regarded, North and South, as the 
best political history of that struggle, yet presented to the public. 

Since the completion of that work, he has also published a 
series of essays on "Political Economy," giving in his own 
peculiar yet forcible way the arguments, new and old, in favor 
of protection to American industry ; a revised and enlarged 
edition of his autobiography, or "Recollections of a Busy 
Life," a volume of *' Letters from the Southwest and Texas," 
first contributed to the Tribune while he was visiting that sec- 
tion of country ; and a very sensible and, on the whole, modest 
book on agricultural topics, entitled " What I Know About 
Farming." This work, mainly in consequence of its title, has 
been the fruitful source of innumerable jokes, good, bad and 
indifferent, by all the newspaper wits and witlings from Maine 
to Mexico. Probably not one in fifty of them ever saw the 
book or read a page of it. 

Mr. Greeley is a very good farmer ; not, perhaps, so observant 
of all those niceties and elegancies which make fancy farming 
ordinarily so brilliant but costly a luxury as some others, but a 
farmer who understands how to make farming pay, even when 



564 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

the farm was originally a poor and unpromising one. His book 
is a plain and graphic account of his own experiences, not spar- 
ing his blunders, and it is a book from which any practical 
farmer can derive many beneficial hints and suggestions. 

It has always been a matter of wonder to us, who have known 
Mr. Greeley for so many years, that he should be ambitious for 
office. That he possesses the qualifications in the way of broad 
and comprehensive views, large political and politico-economical 
attainments, and unflinching honesty and uprightness, which 
would fit him for almost any office in the gift of the people, we 
do not doubt. He might be the better for a higher degree of re- 
finement and greater courtesy of manner ; but his bluft' and some- 
times awkward address is a part of his nature, and is as 
inseparable from him as his skin. Yet why he should be am- 
bitious to be a member of Congress, a Governor, a United States 
Senator, or a President, has always passed our comprehension. 
As editor of the New York Tribune, he wielded an influence in- 
finitely greater than any Congressman, Governor, Senator, or 
President could ever hope to exercise. 

From a quarter to half a million of men believed in Horace 
Greeley as religiously as they believed in their Bibles, and many 
of them reverenced his opinions more than those of any other 
human being. He was, in the Eepublican administration, and 
had been for a dozen years and more, "the power behind the 
throne greater than the throne." It could not be for the emolu- 
ments of office, for though he can hardly be called rich, being 
too liberal and lavish a giver ever to roll up a fortune, still his 
income was very little, if at all, less than that of the President 
of the United States, and it was not for a four years' term, but 
for life. 

Yet there could be no question about the ambition. Though 
seldom gratified, (he had been a member of Congress for one 



HORACE GREELEY. 565 

session, aud a member of the Constitutional Convention, beside 
some minor appointments, not wliolly political,) its exis- 
tence was evident always. It was, perhaps, most conspicuous 
in his letter to the old firm, as he termed them, of Seward, 
Weed & Co., first published ten or twelve years ago, and which 
he has republished himself within the present year. From any 
other standpoint than the somewhat peculiar one occupied by 
Mr. Greeley himself, the complaints that Mr. Seward had not 
bestowed upon him this or that office, seem whimsical and child- 
ish. At the time when this letter was written, tlorace Greeley 
wielded a power essentially greater than William H.Seward had 
ever exerted. He was the cause of Mr. Lincoln's nomination 
and Mr. Seward's defeat in the struggle for the Presidency, in 
1860 and through the civil war, as through European wars 
since, if he did not organize victory, he often precipitated 
action. 

It has been a characteristic of Mr. Greeley hitherto, that 
greatly as he might desire office (and we are bound to believe 
for no ignoble purpose, but solely that he might benefit his 
country), he was very sure by bringing forward some whim or 
crotchet, which he knew to be unpopular, but which he had 
adopted, to destroy his chances of election. He had done this 
so many times that his warmest friends had begun to be doubt- 
ful of the propriety of giving him a nomination. That he had 
any aspirations for the Presidency would two years ago have 
been regarded as a huge joke. But it is pretty well settled that 
he has been for years aiming in that direction. 

Though he has acted with the Hepublican party ever since its 
existence, except in some local matters, where a bolt was cer- 
tainly allowable, yet he was known to entertain views differiii<T 
from many of the leaders in regard to the conduct of the war, 
the proclamation of universal amnesty and impartial suflrage 



566 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

the bailing of Jefferson Davis, compensation for the slaves, 
etc., etc. 

About a year and a half since, a New York daily paper, 
whose editor was Mr. Greeley's bitterest personal enemy (and he 
has some very bitter ones), began to dedicate two columns of his 
paper daily to the record of the doings of " Useless S. Grant " and 
his rival for the Presidency, whom he announced sometimes as 
" Useful H. Greeley," and sometimes as " The Great and Good Dr. 
Horace Greeley of Texas and Oregon." The whole affair was in- 
tended as a personal joke of huge proportions, but of so coarse a 
character that it was supposed every one would see through it. 

But what this Ishmaelite editor intended as a stupendous joke 
came in time to be considered by a large proportion of the peo- 
ple as sober earnest. Mr. Greeley had been gradually drawing 
away from the Administration. Identified with the Fenton 
wing of the Republican party in New York, he soon drew down 
upon himself the bitter hostility of Mr, Roscoe Conkling and 
his friends, and as Mr. Conkling had the ear of the President in 
regard to New York appointments, Mr. Greeley's friends were 
mercilessly slaughtered. Soon there came other grievances ; 
Mr. Greeley had labored earnestly, and with all the intensity of 
his will, to have one or two men removed from important and 
lucrative Government appointments in New York city, on the 
alleged ground of their incompetency and corruption. That he 
fully believed the charges which he brought against them, and 
v/hich he brought a large array of facts to sustain, no one who 
knows him will doubt for a moment. But the President was 
reluctant to remove these men, and when he finally felt com- 
pelled to do so, he gave to the chief offender a certificate of 
character, which was in substance a declaration that he did not 
believe the charges made against him. 

Soon after this there was a strong pressure made for President 



HORACE GREELEY. 567 

Grant's renomination, and Mr. Greeley, who has been a consis- 
tent advocate of one term for the Presidency for many years, 
denounced this movement in unmeasured terms. He also made 
charges of nepotism and favoritism against the President. Other 
prominent men joined in this opposition to the President, and it 
was at length determined to hold a Convention of Republicans 
opposed to the renomination of President Grant, in Cincinnati, 
in the first week in May, 1872. The call for this convention 
came from Mr. Greeley's life-long enemies, the Free-Traders, and 
it was supposed that Judge David Davis of Illinois, or Mr. 
Charles Francis Adams, or possibly, Judge Trumbull of Illinois 
would be its candidate. But Mr. Greeley's friends (we hardly 
believe he himself gave anything more than a passive assent to 
their exertions) had been active in securing delegates to the con- 
vention, and at its meeting, after the adoption of a very good 
platform, which referred the question of free-trade back to the 
Congressional Districts for full adjudication by the election of 
representatives on that issue, Horace Greeley was nominated for 
the Presidency on the sixth ballot. 

At first the news took the whole country by surprise, and it 
was received in many quarters with distrust, and in some with 
denunciation. But it soon appeared that very many of the 
Southern people were in favor of the nomination. The Demo- 
cracy, though acknowledging that it was a bitter pill to be 
obliged to vote for their most virulent enemy, yet whet'led into 
line, and having no nominee of their own on whom tliev could 
unite, in their State Conventions, with an extraordinary unani- 
mity, sanctioned the nomination. The disaffected Republicans, 
at first a small body, grew in numbers daily, and unlikely as it 
seemed in 1871, he would be a bold man who should sa}' to-day, 
that tFle election of Horace Greeley as President of the United 
States, in November, 1872, was either impossible or very impro- 



668 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

bable. The address and platform of the Cincinnati Convention, to 
"which we have already alluded, was as follows : 

THE ADDRESS. 

The administration now in power has rendered itself guilty of wanton 
disregard of the laws of the land, and usurped powers not granted by the 
Constitution. It has acted as if the laws had binding force only for those 
who are governed, and not for those who govern. It has thus struck a 
blow at the fundamental principles of constitutional government and the 
liberty of the citizen. The President of the United States has openly used 
the powers and opportunities of his high ofBce for the promotion of per- 
sonal ends. He has kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in places 
of power and responsibility to the detriment of the public interest. He 
has used the public service of the Government as a machinery of partisan 
and personal intiuence, and interfered with tyrannical arrogance in the 
political affairs of States and municipalities. He has rewarded, with influ- 
ential and lucrative oEBces, men who had acquired his favor by valuable 
presents ; thus stimulating demoralization of our political life by his con- 
spicuous example. He has shown himself deplorably unequal to the tasks 
imposed upon him by the necessities of the country, and culpably careless 
of the responsibilities of his high office. The partisans of the Admin- 
istration, assuming to be the Republican party and controlling its organi- 
zation, have attempted to justify such wrongs and palliate such abuses, to 
the end of maintaining partisan ascendancy. They have stood in the way 
of necessary investigations and indispensable reforms, pretending that no 
serious fault could be found with the present administration of public 
affairs ; thus seeking to blind the eyes of the people. They have kept 
alive the passions and resentments of the late civil war, to use them for 
their own advantage. 

They have resorted to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the or- 
ganic law, instead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriotism 
of the Southern people by restoring to them those rights, the enjoyment 
of which is indispensable for a successful administration of their local 
affairs, and would tend to move a patriotic and hopeful national feeling. 
They have degraded themselves and the name of their party, once justly 
entitled to the confidence of the nation, by a base sycophancy to the dis- 
penser of executive power and patronage unworthy of Republican free- 
men ; they have sought to stifle the voice of just criticism, to stifle the 
moral sense of the people, and to subjugate public opinion by tyrannical 
party discipline. They are striving to maintain themselves in authority 
for selfish ends by an unscrupulous use of tlie power which rightfully be- 
longs to the people, and should be employed only in tlie service of the 
country. Believing that an organization thus led and controlled can no 



HORACE GREELEY. 569 

longer be of service to the best interests of the Republic, we have resolved 
to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment, conscience, and pa- 
triotism of the American people. 



THE PLATFORM. 

We, fhe Liberal Republicans of the United States, in National Convention 
assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the following 'principles as essential to 
just government : 

I. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it 
is the duty of Government in its dealings with the people to mete out 
equal and exact justice to all of whatever nativity, race, color, or persua- 
sion, religious or political. 

II. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, emancipa- 
tion and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions 
settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the 
Constitution. 

III. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities 
imposed on account of the Rebellion, which was finally subdued seven 
years ago, believing that universal amnesty will result in complete pacifica- 
tion in all sections of the country. 

IV. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights 
of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. The public wel- 
fare requires the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and 
freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus. We demand 
for the individual the largest liberty consistent with public order; for the 
State, self-government, and for the nation a return to the methods of peace 
and the constitutional limitations of power. 

v. The Civil Service of the Government has become a mere instrument 
of partisan tyranny and personal ambition and an object of seltish greed. 
It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions, and breeds a demorali- 
zation dangerous to the perpetuity of Republican Government. We there- 
fore regard such thorough reforms of the Civil Service as one of the most 
pressing necessities of the hour ; that honesty, capacity, and fidelity con- 
stitute the only valid claim to public employment; that the offices of the 
Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, 
and that public station become again a post of honor. To this end it is 
imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for reelection. 

"VI. We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unneces- 
sarily interfere with the industry of the people, and wliich shall provide 
tlie means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government, economically 
administered, the pensions, the interest on the public debt, and a mode- 
rate reduction annually of the principal thereof; and, recognizing that 



570 ME^i OF OUR DAY. 

tliere are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with 
regard to the respective systems of Protection and Free-Trade, we remit 
the discussion of the subject to the people in their Congress Districts, and 
to the decision of Congress thereon, wholly free of Executive interference 
or dictation. 

Vil. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we denounce 
repudiation in every form and guise. 

VIII. A speedy return to specie payment is demanded alike by the 
highest considerations of commercial morality and honest government. 

IX. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the 
soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract 
from their justly earned fame or the full reward of their patriotism. 

X. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other 
corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers. 

XI. We hold that it is the duty of the Government, in its intercourse 
with foreign nations, to cultivate the friendship of peace, by treating with 
all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dishonorable either to demand 
what is not right, or to submit to what is wrong. 

XII. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and the 
support of the candidates nominated by this convention, we invite and 
cordially welcome the cooperation of all patriotic citizens, without regard 
to previous affiliations. Horace White, 

Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. 
G. P. Thurston, Secretary. 

The officers of the Cincinnati Convention notified Mr. Greeley 
of his nomination ill the following terms: 

Cincinnati, Ohio, May 3d, 1872. 
Dear Sir : — The National Convention of the Liberal Republicans of 
the United States have instructed the undersigned, President, Vice-Presi- 
dent, and Secretaries of the Convention to inform you that you have been 
nominated as the candidate of the Liberal Republicans for the Presidency 
of the United States. We also submit to you the Address and Resolutions 
unanimously adopted by the Convention. 

Be pleased to signify to us your acceptance of the platform and the 
nomination, and believe us, Very truly yours, 

C. ScHURZ, President, 

Geo. W. Julian, Vice-President. 

Wm. E. McLean, ] 

John G Davidson, > Secretaries. 
J. H. Rhodes, J 

Hon. Horace Greeley. New York City, 



HORACE GREELEY. 571 

To this communication Mr. Greeley replied, on the 20th of 

May, as follows : 

New York, May 20th, 1872, 

(tEntlemen : — I have chosen not to acknowledofe your letter of the 3d 
inst. until I could learn how the work of your Convention was received in 
all parts of our great country, and judge whether that work was approved 
and ratified by the mass of our fellow-citizens. Their response has from 
day to day reached me through telegrams, letters, and the comments of 
journalists independent of official patronage and indifferent to the smiles 
or frowns of power. The number and character of these unconstrained, 
xmpurchased, imsolicited utterances, satisfy me that the movement which 
found expression at Cincinnati has received the stamp of public approval, 
and been hailed by a majority of our countrymen as the harbinger of a 
better day for the Republic. 

I do not misinterpret this approval as especially complimentary to my- 
self, nor even to the chivalrous and justly esteemed gentleman with whose 
name I thank your Convention for associating mine. I receive and wel- 
come it as a spontaneous and deserved tribute to that admirable Platform 
of principles, wherein your Convention so tersely, so lucidly, so forcibly, 
set forth the convictions which impelled and the purposes which guided its 
course — a Platform which, casting behind it the wreck and rubbish of worn- 
out contentions and bygone feuds, embodies in fit and few words the needs 
and aspirations of to-day. Though thousands stand ready to condemn 
your every act, hardly a syllable of criticism or cavil has been aimed at 
your Platform, of which the sxibstance may be fairly epitomized as follows: 

I. All the political rights and franchises which have been acquired 
through our late bloody convulsion must and shall be guaranteed, main- 
tained, enjoyed, respected, evermore. 

II. All the political rights and franchises which have been lost through 
that convulsion should and must be promptly restored and reestablished, 
so that there shall be henceforth no proscribed class and no disfranchised 
caste within the limits of our Union, whose long estranged people shall 
reunite and fraternize upon the broad basis of Universal Amnesty with 
Impartial Suffrage. 

III. That, subject to our solemn constitutional obligation to maintain 
the equal rights of all citizens, our policy should aim at local self-govern- 
ment, and not at centralization; that the civil authority should be supreme 
over the military ; that the writ of habeas corpus should be jealously up- 
held as the safeguard of personal freedom ; that the individual citizen- 
should enjoy the largest liberty consistent with public order; and that 
there shall be no Federal subversion of the internal polity of the several 
States and municipalities, but that each shall be left free to enforce the 



672 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

rights and promote the well-being of its inhabitants by such means as the 
judgment of its own people shall prescribe. 

IV. There shall be a real and not merely a simulated Reform in the 
Civil Service of the Republic; to which end it is indispensable that the 
chief dispenser of its vast official patronage shall be shielded from the 
main temptation to use his power selfishly by a rule inexorably forbidding 
and precluding his reelection. 

V. That the raising of Revenue, whether by Tariff or otherwise, shall 
be recognized and treated as the people's immediate business, to be shaped 
and directed by them through their Representatives in Congress, whose 
action thereon the President must neither overrule by his veto, attempt to 
dictate, nor presume to punish, by bestowing office only on those who 
agree with him or withdrawing it from those who do not. 

VI. That the Public Lands must be sacredly reserved for occupation 
and acquisition by cultivators, and not recklessly squandered on the pro- 
jectors of Railroads for which our people have no present need, and the 
premature construction of which is annually plunging us into deeper and 
deeper abysses of foreign indebtedness. 

VII. That the achievement of these grand purposes of universal bene- 
ficence is expected and sought at the hands of all who approve them irre- 
spective of past affiliations. 

VIII. That the public faith must at all hazards be maintained, and the 
national credit preserved. 

IX. Tliat the patriotic devotedness and inestimable services of our fellow- 
citizens who, as soldiers or sailors, upheld the flag and maintained the unity 
of the Republic shallever be gratefully remembered and honorably requited. 

These propositions, so ably and forcibly presented in the Platform of your 
Convention, have already fixed the attention and commanded the assent 
of a large majority of our countrymen, who joyfully adopt them, as I do, 
as the bases of a true, beneficent National Reconstruction — of a New De- 
parture from jealousies, strifes, and hates, which have no longer adequate 
motive or even plausible pretext, into an atmosphere of peace, fraternity, 
and mutual good will. In vain do the drill-sergeants of decaying organi- 
zations flourish menacingly their truncheons and angrily insist that the 
files shall be closed and straightened : in vain do the whippers-in of par- 
ties once vital because rooted in the vital needs of the hour protest against 
straying and bolting, denounce men nowise their inferiors as traitors and 
renegades, and threaten them with infamy and ruin. I am confident that 
the American people have already made your cause their own, fully re- 
solved that their brave hearts and strong arms shall bear it on to triumph. 
In this faith, and v»rith the distinct understanding that, if elected, I shall 
be the President not of a party, but of tlie whole people, I accept your 
nomination in the confident trust that the masses of our countrymen, 
North and South, are eager to clasp hands across the bloody chasm which 



HORACE GREELEY. 573 

has too long divided them, forgetting that they have been enemies in the 
joyful consciousness that they are and must henceforth remain brethren. 

Yours, gratefully, 

Horace Greeley. 

To Hon. Carl Schurz, President; Hon. George W. Julian, Vice-Presi- 
dent; and Messrs. William E. McLean, John G. Davidson, J. H. 
Rhodes, Secretaries of the National Convention of the Liberal Republi- 
cans of the United States. 

There can be no question that this movement if successful, 
must result in the breaking up of old party lines and organiza- 
tions, and in the development of new issues and questions on 
which men who have hitherto been ' bitterly opposed to each 
other will find themselves working shoulder to shoulder ; while 
many heretofore marching in the same ranks, will henceforth 
rally under difi'erent leaders and banners. Perhaps this may be 
well ; at all events it is very likely to come ; but whether 
the motley host who raise the Greeley banner, can, in the 
event of their success, be kept together for six months is 
not so certain ; and whether Mr. Greeley will be the man to 
unite them in a harmonious party, when the great majority 
have hardly an opinion in common with him, is equally 
uncertain. 

It had long been supposed by all who knew Mr. Greeley, that 
nothing but death could separate him from his beloved I'ribune ; 
but it is due to him to say that within a week after his nomina- 
tion he withdrew from the editorship of the paper, which is, 
however, carried on in his interest by Mr. Whitelaw Reid, his 
able managing editor for the past three years. 

We cannot, perhaps, better close this sketch of Mr, Greeley, 
than with the summary of his character given by his friend, 
Rev. Dr. Bellows, of the Liberal Christian, a summary which is 
as true as it is happy in its characterization: 

*' At home in city and country, and on both sides of the con- 



574 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

tinent ; with all tLe qualities of the Yankee — simple as shrewd, 
and shrewd as simple ; good-natured as a healthy child, and 
passionate as the same on occasions ; a wide lover of his species, 
and a tremendous hater of many of its individual varieties ; 
open as the day, and inscrutable as the night ; devoted to princi- 
ple when not absorbed by measures ; strong as a giant when 
some political Delilah has not shorn his locks in her lap ; so 
pure that dirt won't stick to him, which makes him a little too 
free in going into it ; not to be known by his associates, because 
quite superior to many of them ; capable of a superhuman frank- 
ness and a Trappian silence — certainly America finds in him at 
this moment its most characteristic representative. He is the 
American ]par excellence.^'' 



WILLIAM S. GROESBECK, 

OF OHIO. 




"'^^ MONG the Democratic members of Congress from Ohio, 
l|5 few, if any, have been more highly esteemed by all par- 
ties than Mr. Groesbeok. He has always borne the 
reputation of being a fair and honorable man, not a 
bitter partisan ; and though he clings with all the tenacity of his 
ancestry to the Democratic faith, he holds to its large and 
really beneficent theories of human government, rather than to 
the narrow and pettifogging views of the lower order of poli- 
ticians, who proclaim themselves Democrats without any just 
understanding of the real meaning of the name. 

William S. Groesbeck was born in Albany county, New- 
York, in 1826. He was of Dutch ancestry, the Groesbecks being 
a numerous and highly respectable family among the early set- 
tlers of the Mohawk valley. We think he did not have the 
advantage of a full collegiate course, but he has been a diligent 
student, and is specially well versed in English literature. He 
studied law in Albany, and after being admitted to the bar 
removed to Cincinnati, in 1847, or 1848, and engaged in the 
practice of his profession. His legal attainments were such as 
speedily to bring him into prominence, and doubtless, into a 
lucrative practice. In 1852, we find him at the age of twenty- 
six, employed as a member of a commission in the difficult and 

575 



576 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

responsible work of codifying the laws of Ohio ; he had already 
(in I80I) been a member of the State Constitutional Conven- 
tion ; and in both duties he had distinguished himself. In 1856, 
he was elected a Representative in Congress from Cincinnati, 
and was then a member of the Committee on Foreign affairs, an 
important position for so young and new a member. In Jan- 
uary and February, 1861, he was a member of the "Peace Con- 
gress," and favored compromise measures. The next year he 
was a member of the Ohio Senate, but never a bitter opponent 
of the war. In 1866, when the "National Union Convention," 
or as it was appropriately named by a New York wit, "the 
Arm-in-arm Convention" met in Philadelphia, Mr. Groesbeck 
was one of its ablest members. Here, too, his best efforts were 
made in behalf of conciliation, and a reunion of the hitherto dis- 
cordant elements at the North and South. When, in 1868, Pre- 
sident Johnson was put on his trial, he secured the services of 
Mr. Groesbeck as one of his counsel, and his whole bearing 
during that protracted trial was such as to win for him the 
respect of his opponents. 

Since 1868, Mr. Groesbeck has devoted himself very sedu- 
lously to his profession, but his party claim him as one of their 
very ablest men, and many of them have been very anxious to 
nominate him for the Presidency, but he has steadfastly resisted 
all overtures of the kind, and is understood to favor for his 
party the nomination of the Cincinnati candidates for the com- 
ing Presidential campaign. 

Mr. Groesbeck is more a jurist than a politician, and though 
h-e possesses the ability to fill with credit any position, he would, 
we believe, enjoy judicial much more than political honors. 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 

EX-UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM INDIANA. 




HE name of Hendricks is an honorable one in Indiana. 
WHliam Hendricks, a kinsman of Thomas, and an early- 
settler in the territory, was Secretary of the Constitu- 
tional Convention which formed the present Constitu- 
tion of the State, its first and only representative in Con- 
gress from 1816 to 1822 ; its Governor from 1822 to 1825, and 
a United States Senator from 1825 to 1837. 

Thomas, the subject of the present sketch, was born in Musk- 
ingum county, Ohio, September 7th, 1819. He graduated from^ 
S. Hanover College, Indiana, in 1841, studied law in Ohio and 
in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 
1843. He removed immediately to Indianapolis, Indiana, and 
entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he soon 
attained reputation and success. But the law in Indiana as well 
as elsewhere in the West, is only a stepping-stone to a political 
career, and so Mr. Hendricks very naturally glided into politics. 
In 184:8, he was elected to the State Legislature, but the follow- 
ing year declined a re-election; in 1850, he was an active and 
useful member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention, and in 
the autumn of that year was elected to Congress from the 
Indianapolis district. He was re-elected in 1852, and at the 
expiration of his second term (in March, 1855,) was appointed 
^"t ' 677 



578 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

Commissioner of the General Land Office, in which post he was 
continued by President Buchanan, but iu 1859 resigned. 

In 1862, he was elected United States Senator, serving from 
1863 to 1869, and was a member of several important com- 
mittees. Though belonging to and voting with the small Demo- 
cratic minority in the Senate, during his whole Senatorial term. 
Senator Hendricks was not factious or bitterly partisan. He 
secured the respect of his opponents by his manly and dignified 
course, and retained the confidence and regard of his constitu- 
ents, though the Republicans were in the ascendancy in the 

State during most of his term. 

» 
Since leaving the Senate, Mr. Hendricks, though active in 

politics, has not sought office. He exerts a controlling influence 

in Indiana, and has the confidence of the rank and file of the 

party, as a man of pure and patriotic motives. He has been 

often named for the Presidency, but is wise enough to see that 

his time has not yet come. He has recently been nominated by 

the Democrats for Governor of the State, and is understood to 

favor a coalition with the Liberal Republicans. 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 




IILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, one of the earliest, the 
most persistent, and consistent of American abolitionists, 
was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the 12th 
of December, 1804. His mother was a native of the 
Province of New Brunswick, of English stock, born in the faith 
of the established church, beautiful, spirited, and gay. At the 
age of eighteen, she was led by curiosity to attend the meetings 
of some itinerant Baptists, was converted and became a member 
of that church. For this her parents closed their hearts and 
their doors against her, and she was indebted to an uncle for a 
home until ber marriage. She was a woman of marked in- 
dividuality, earnest convicUons, enthusiastic temperament, and 
possessed a native gift of eloquence in prayer and exhor- 
tation, which was frequently exercised in public, as was 
allowed by the custom of that denomination. His father, 
Abijah Garrison, was master of a vessel, engaged in the West 
India trade, and was possessed of considerable literary ability 
and taste. Unfortunately, however, he became a victim to in- 
temperance ; and, under its baneful influence, abandoned his 
family. Ilis wife, thus left with her children, in utter poverty, 
adopted the calling of a nurse ; and, in 1814, went to Lynn, 
Massachusetts, and "William was placed with Gamaliel Oliver, 

a Quaker shoemaker of that town, to learn the trade. So small 

579 



580 MEX OF OUR DAY, 

for his ngo, was ho, that his knees trembled under the weight 
of the hxpstone; and liis mother Ihidin};, at the end of a low 
months, that tho business would not agree with her boy, sent 
him hack to Nowburyport. There he was placed at sehod, and 
taught the usual ri>utine of New Mngland distriet schools, at that 
time — reading, writing, ciphering, and a little graninuir. lie 
lived in the family of Deaeou E/.ekiol Bartlett; ami, as an 
equivalent for his board, employed himself, when out of school, 
in assisting the deacon in his occupation of wood-sawyer, going 
with him from house to house. In 18 lo, ho ai>eonipanied his 
mother to Baltimore, where, after a year sjient in the capacity 
of " chore-boy," he returned to Nowburyport. Jn 1818, he was 
apprenticed to Moses Short, a cabinet-maker of Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, bi\t linding tho trade very repugnant to his 
feelings, ho finally succeeded in persuading his employer to 
release him, anil in October of the same year, became indentured 
to Kpliraim W. Allen, editor o[' the ^^ Ni'wbnryport //em/(/," to 
hvirn the art of printing. Ho Inul, at last, found an om[>loyment 
congenial to his tast(\>^, and speedily beeamo expert in tho 
mechanical part of the business. His mind, also, developed 
into activity ; and, when only sixteen or seventeen years of ago 
he began to conti'ibute to the columns of the j^aper, upon j^olitieal 
and other topics — carefully prosetving, however, his incognito. 
On one occasion, the apprentice, who thus had the pleasure of 
setting his own contributions in type, was the amused an 1 
flattered recipient oi' a letter of thanks from his master, w' o 
urged him ti> continue his communications, 

A considerable time elapsed before Mr. Allen became aware 
that the correspondent, whose communications he so valued 
and eagerly welcomed, was his own apprentice. The ice once 
broken, however, young Garrison launched out somewhat more 
extensively in tho literary line, his contributions bei ng accepted, 



WILLIAM LLOYD (JAimiHON. 081 

with inucli favor, by the; " A'a/c/n (iazdlv.^^ tlio ^^ JIavcrhill 
OuztUlc,^' und the ^^ JJuslou Conr/ncrcial (/azdle,^^ ospooially by 
the latter, the editor of wliieli, Samuel Ij. Knapp, was a iiiaii of 
marked eulturc and ;/oo<l taste. A ^^eri(^s of (jianistjii'.s aiLi(;Je.s, 
publisluid ill tli(< "AW.Am (/azdt<;,'^ (jvcr the .si;.^iiatiire of 
'* Aristides," attraeted in itch attention in polilieul cirele.s, and 
were hi^iily eoinmendcd \>y Itobert Walsh, then editor <jf tho 
"National Cyazd/c" (i'hiladelpliia), who attributed their author- 
ship to the venerable Timothy I'iekerin^, In 18*24, during tho 
Bonutwhat protracted al).senee of Mr. Alien, tlic " /Aru/'/" was 
odit(id by CiarrLson, who, also, HUfierintcnded its jninting. 
About the Hanio time, hiw eiithusiaHtie nature l^eeaine ho inter- 
ested in tho cauHO of the (ireelcH, tiien Ktruggling I'or their free- 
dom, that lie was strongly inelined to Hocik adminsion to tho 
Militury Academy at Went I'oint, with a view of pi'i;))aring 
hirnaelf for a military earecr. In 18'2(), at tho elo.se of hin 
approntioenhij), he beeame j)roprietor and editor of a Journal in 
his native town, entitled " 27ir, Free /■'mw;" and toiled aiduouH- 
ly, putting hi.s arti(;l(!H in type with(jut eommitting them to 
paper, 'i'he ent<;r[)ri,se, however, |)rov(;d unsue<',e.ssfijl, and he 
sought and obtained (;mpl(»y nnrnt, f^r awhile, as u journeyman 
pi'inter, in Bowton ; wheic, in 18'27, he became the (;ditor of the 
" Nalittnal Pldhitdli.mpiHt^'' the first journal ever e.stabli.shed lor 
the ttdvoeaey of tho eauso of " total abslinenee." Before the 
close of itH first year, the journal ehanged jjrojirietor.s ; and 
during the next year, 182H, he joiiKjd a fiiciid in the jmblieation 
o(" " 'ihc. Journal of l/te yVw.-*," at ltenningt<m, V<'.rmont. 'i'his 
journal Kupfiorted the elaims of John Quiney Adams to tho 
pre.sideney, and was devoted in part to tho interests of peaeci, 
ternperanee, anti-slavery, and kindred reforms; but it faihid of 
a sunTieient support, and was diwiontinued. l)uring liis reHi<lenee 
at Bennington, Mr. Garrison's influence, in regard to slavery, was 



582 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

felt not only in that place, but, also, throughout the entire 
State, and led to the transmission, to Congress, of an anti- 
slavery memorial, which was more numerously signed than any 
similar paper ever before submitted to that tribunal. This 
subject, indeed, had now fairly enlisted the full interest of Mr. 
Garrison's mind, and he delivered an address before a religious 
and philanthropic assembly, held on the 4th of July, 1829, in 
the Park street church, Boston, which excited general attention 
by the boldness and vigor of its tones. 

His " mission" — as the Germans would say — had found him, 
and a larger sphere of usefulness was opening before him. 
During the previous year (1828) he had become acquainted at 
Boston with one Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker and an abolition- 
ist, who had been publishing, in Baltimore, since 1824, " The 
Genius of Universal Emancipation'^ (established in 1821), "an 
anti-slavery paper which was read only by a few people in the 
city and adjacent country, mostly of his own faith, and which 
the southern people thought was not of sufficient consequence to 
be put down." The Baptist and the Quaker met and " struck 
hands" on this one common ground — their duty to the slave. 
So, in the autumn of 1829, Garrison went to Baltimore and 
joined Mr. Lundy in the editorship of the Genius ; making, in 
the first number issued under the new auspices, a distinct 
avowal of the doctrine of immediate emancipation. Mr. Lundy 
was a gradual emancipationist and a believer in colonization, 
which Mr. Garrison entirely repudiated ; but, as each of them 
appended his initials to his articles, the difference of opinion in- 
terposed no obstacle to a hearty co-operation. But the zeal of 
the new editor produced an unwonted excitement among the sup- 
porters of slavery, while his denunciation of the colonization 
project aroused an equal amount of hostility among the friends 
of the paper. " From tbe moment," says Garrison (in a speech 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISOX. 5"83 

at Philadelpliia, 1863), "that the doctrine of immediate emanci- 
pation was enunciated in the columns of the Genius, as it had 
not been up to that hour, it was like a bombshell in the camp of 
the subscribers themselves ; and from every direction letters 
poured in, that they had not bargained for such a paper as that, 
or for such doctrines, and they desired to have no more copies 
sent to them." Lundy seems to have borne patiently with the 
ruinous "rumpus" which his partner had raised; but an event 
soon occurred which occasioned a dissolution of the firm. It so 
happened that the ship Francis, belonging to a Mr. Francis 
Todd of Newburyport, Massachusetts, came to Baltimore, where 
she took in a cargo of slaves for the Louisiana market. It 
roused all the righteous indignation of Mr. Garrison, who 
denounced it as an act of " domestic piracy," and declared his 
intention to " cover with thick infamy all who were engaged in 
the transaction." Baltimore had patiently stood Lundy and his 
Genius for some years, but it could not brook this ferocious 
attack upon a business which was not only legitimized by use 
in their city but " by which they had their gain." Garrisoa 
was prosecuted for libel, indicted and convicted at the May term 
(1830) of the city, court, for " a gross and malicious libel" 
against the owner and master of the vessel, though the Custom 
House records proved that the number of slaves transported 
really exceeded the editor's statement. In spite of the able de- 
fence of his counsel, Charles Mitchell, who occupied a position 
at the Baltimore bar second only to that of William Wirt, he 
was fined fifty dollars and costs of the court. Mr. Todd, in a 
civil suit, afterward obtained a verdict against him for one thou- 
sand dollars — but the judgment, probably on account of his well 
known poverty, was never enforced. During his imprisonment 
he was considerately placed in a cell recently vacated by a man 
who had been hung for murder — but he experienced much 



584 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

kindness from the jailer and his family — and was visited 
frequently by Lundy and a few other Quaker friends. The 
northern press, generally, condemned his imprisonment aa 
unjust, the South Carolina Manumission Society protested 
against it as an infraction of the liberty of the press, and hia 
letters to the different newspapers, as well as several sonnets 
which he inscribed upon the walls of his cell, excited considerable 
attention in various quarters. After a forty-nine days' confine- 
ment he was released by the payment of the fine by Mr. 
Arthur Tappan, a New York merchant, whose generosity 
anticipated, by a few days, a similar purpose on the part of 
Henry Clay, whose interest had been awakened by a mutual 
friend. To Daniel Webster, also, Mr. Garrison was indebted, 
soon after his release, for sympathy and encouragement. 

Freed from his chains, the dauntless champion of the op- 
pressed issued a prospectus for an anti-slavery journal to be 
published at Washington, and with the design of exciting a 
deeper and more wide-spread interest in his proposed enter- 
prise, he prepared a course of lectures on slavery, which he 
■delivered in Philadelphia, New York, New Haven, Hartford, 
and Boston. In Baltimore, he failed to obtain a hearing. In 
Boston, all efforts to procure a suitable public place for hia 
lectures having failed, he boldly announced, in the daily prints, 
that if no such place could be obtained within a certain speci- 
fied time, he would address the people on "The Common." 
"The only hall placed at his disposal was by an association of 
infidels ; and Mr. Garrison accepted the offer, and there de- 
livered his lectures; taking care, however, to distinctly avow 
his belief in Christianity, as the only power which could break 
the bonds of the enslaved. These lectures were largely attended, 
and were instrumental in awakening an increased interest in 
the subject. His experiences as a lecturer convinced him thai 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 585 

Boston, rather than Washington, was the best location for an 
anti-slavery paper ; and that a revolution of public sentiment 
at the North must precede emancipation in the South. It was 
in Boston, accordingly, that he issued (January 1st 1831) the 
first, number of the "Z/^erator," taking for his motto, "my 
country is the world; my countrymen arc all mankind;" and 
declaring, in the face of an almost universal apathy upon the 
subject of slavery, "/aw in earnest ; I will not equivocate ; I will 
not excuse ; / will not retract a single word, and I will he heardP And 
again: "On this question my influence, humble as it is, is felt 
at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall he felt in 
coming years — not perniciously, but beneficially — not as a curse, 
but as a blessing ; and posterity will bear testimony that 

I WAS RIGHT." 

Yet this earnest young man, who so defiantly threw down 
the gauntlet to the world, was without means, or promise of 
support from any quarter, and his partner in the proposed 
enterprise, Mr. Isaac Knapp, was as poor as himself. Fortu- 
nately they were both afforded employment in the office of the 
^^ Christian Examiner,^^ the foreman of which was a warm per- 
sonal friend of Garrison — and were thus enabled to exchange 
their labor for the use of the type, Mr. Garrison working labor- 
iously at type-setting all day, and spending the night in his edito- 
rial capacity. The initial number was at length issued, and the 
young men waited anxiously to see what encouragement tliey 
should receive. The first cheering return for their labors 
was the receipt of fifty dollars, with a list of twenty-five sub- 
scribers, from James Forten, a wealthy colored citizen of Phila- 
delphia, and they cast aside all doubt as to their future. At 
the expiration of three weeks they were enabled to open an 
office for themselves; but, for nearly two years, their very 
restricted resources obliged them to reside in the ofl&ce, making 



586 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

their beds upon the floor, and subsisting upon the plainest and 
humblest fare. In all sections of the country, both North and 
South, the " Liberator'^ attracted general attention, finding 
sympathy in some quarters, while in others it was denounced 
as fanatical and incendiary. The Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, 
then mayor of Boston, having been urged, by a southern magis- 
trate, to suppress the journal by law, if possible, wrote in reply 
that his officers had " ferreted out the paper and its editor, 
whose office was an obscure hole, his only auxiliary a negro 
boy, his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all col- 
ors." Almost every mail, at this period, brought threats of 
assassination to Mr. Garribon, if he persisted in publishing his 
sheet ; and in December, 1831, an act was passed by the Legisla- 
ture of Georgia, ofiering a reward of $5000 to any one who 
should arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute to conviction, under 
the laws of that State, the editor and proprietor of the obnox- 
ious journal. His friends, becoming alarmed for his safety, 
urged his arming himself for defence ; but being a non-resistant 
he was conscientiously restrained from following their advice. 

On the 1st of January, 1832, he, with eleven others, organ- 
iised " The New England (afterwards the Massachusetts) Anti- 
Slavery Society," upon the principle of immediate emancipation , 
and this was the parent of the numerous affiliated societies by 
which, for many years, the anti-slavery question was so per- 
sistently kept before the public eye. In the spring of the same 
year, he published a work,- entitled " Thoughts on African 
Colonization," etc., setting forth, at length, the grounds of his 
opposition to that scheme. Immediately after (1833), he went 
to England as an agent of the New England Anti-Slavery 
Society, for the purpose of securing the co-operation of the peo 
pie of Great Britain, in measures for the promotion of emancipa- 
tion in the United States, and as opposed to the colonization 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON-. 587 

sclieme. He was cordially received by Wilberforce, Buxton, 
and their noble associates ; and, as the result of his statements 
and influence, Wilberforce, and eleven of his most prominent 
coadjutors, joined in the issue of a protest against the American 
Colonization Society, whose plans they pronounced delusive, 
and a hindrance to the abolition of slavery. While in England, 
through his influence also, Mr. George Thompson, one of the 
most prominent of the anti-slavery champions in Great Britain, 
was induced to visit the United States as an anti-slavery 
lecturer. 

Shortly after Mr, Garrison's return to America, " The Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society" was formed at Philadelphia, upon 
the principles advocated by him, and the " Declaration of senti- 
ments" issued by the Society, an elaborate manifesto of its 
principles, aims and methods, was also prepared by him. Pub- 
lic interest in the subject had, by this time, deepened into ex- 
citement, and this, intensified to the highest degree, developed 
a mobocratic spirit ; so that, for two or three years, the assem- 
bling of an anti-slavery meeting, almost anywhere in the free 
States, provoked riotous demonstrations, dangerous alike to 
property and life. Mr. Thompson (before referred to) arrived 
here from England, in 1834; but so great was the excitement 
occasioned by his presence here, that he found it prudent to re- 
turn across the Atlantic, leaving his promised work unfinished. 

In October 1835, a mob, composed of persons who were de- 
scribed in the journals of the day as " gentlemen of property and 
standing," broke up a meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery 
Society, at Boston, and Mr. Garrison, who was announced as 
one of the speakers of the occasion, was seized and, partially 
denuded of his clothing, was violently dragged through the 
streets to City llall ; where, as the only means of saving his life, 
ht was committed to jail by the mayor, on the nominal charge of 



5S3 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

being "a disturber of the peace !" He was, however, released 
the next day, and sent, under protection of the civic authorities, 
to a place of safety in the country, leaving pencilled upon the 
walls'of the cell which he had occupied, the following inscription : 
" William Lloyd Garrison was put into this cell on Wednesday 
afternoon, Octot)er, 21, 1835, to save him from the violence of 
a " respectable and influential" mob, who sought to destroy him, 
for preaching the abominable and dangerous doctrine, that all 
men are created equal, and that all oppression is odious in the 
sight of God. Hail, Columbia ! cheers for the Autocrat of 
Russia, and Sultan of Turkey ! Reader, let this inscription re- 
main, till the last slave in this land be loosed from his fetters I'' 
In the discussion of the peace question which followed these 
scenes of violence, Mr. Garrison took a prominent part as a 
champion of non-resistance ; and, in 1838, led the way in the 
organization of the *' New England Kon-resistance Society ;" 
the " Declaration of Sentiments" issued by them, being also his 
work. About this time, also, arose the question of the rights 
of women as members of the anti-slavery societies, and Mr. 
Garrison earnestly advocated their right, if they so wished, to 
vote, serve on committees, and take part in discussious, on 
equal footing with men. The American Anti-Slavery Society 
split upon this question, in 1840; and, in the "World's Anti- 
Slavery Convention," held during the same year in London, 
Mr. Garrison, as a delegate from that society, refused to take his 
seat, because the female delegates from the United States were 
excluded. During this visit to England, he was invited to 
Stafford House, by the beautiful and distinguished Duchess of 
Sutherland, who treated him with marked attention, and at 
whose request he sat to one of the most eminent artists of the 
day for his portrait, which was added to the treasures of thak 
palace. 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 589 

Iq 1843, lie was cboseii president of the society, wliicli office 
he continued to hold until 1865. 

In 1843, a small volume of his " sonnets and other poems" 
was published; and, in 1846, he made his third visit, on anti- 
slavery business, to Great Britain. In 1852, appeared a volume 
of " selections,"' from his " writings and speeches." 

Mr. Garrison has, from the first, kept himself, as an abolition- 
ist, free from all politiciil or religious complications, or affinities. 
Believing most thoroughly, as expressed in the motto of the 
Liberator, that the Constitution of the United States, in its re- 
lations to slavery, was " a covenant with death and an agree- 
ment with hell," he has acted with singular and unwavering 
consistency. It has been well said,* that " while everybody 
else in the United States had something else to conserve, some 
Bide issues to make, some points to carry. Garrison and his band 
had but one thing to say — that American slavery is a sin ; but one 
thing to do — to preach immediate repentance, and forsaking of 
sin. They withdrew from every organization wiiich could in 
any way be supposed to tolerate or hold communion with it, 
and walked alone, a small, but always active and po^volful 
body. They represented the pure abstract form of. every 
principle as near as it is possible for it to be represented by 
human frailty." 

In 1861, when the war of the rebellion broke out, Mr. 
Garrison did not for a moment hesitate to throw the whole 
weight of his intellectual and moral support in favor of the 
Government, contrary to the course of many of his fellow 
abolitionists, and of many of the so-called peace-men, who 
thought that because they could not take up arms in defence of 
any cause, they could neither acknowledge the constitutional 
right of the North to enforce obedience to the laws, and sup- 



By Mrs. Stowe, in the Watchman and Elector, May 24th, 186C " 



690 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

press rebellion, nor rejoice in anj of its victories. From the 
very first, Mr. Garrison rejoiced in every triumph of the Federal 
arms, as a patriot and a philanthropist; and he foresaw the 
inevitable disruption of slavery, as he had never expected to 
see it. In all his criticisms upon the course of the administra- 
tion, he remembered its grave responsibilities, and placed great 
faith in the personal integrity of President Lincoln. In April, 
1865, at the invitation of Secretary Stanton, he visited Fort 
Sumter, to attend the celebration of its recapture, and went up 
also, to Charleston, where he addressed a great gathering of the 
freedmen, who attended him with flowers on his departure. In 
May, 1865, at the anniversary meeting, in New York, of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was president, — 
after vainly trying to persuade his associates to disband, on 
the ground that, slavery being abolished, the society became a 
misnomer, and ceased to have a reason for existing, while for 
any service yet to be performed for tlie freedmen, it was far 
better to work in unison with the great body of loyalists all 
over the North, than to continue in their hitherto enforced 
isolation, — he resigned his oflSce, and withdrew from the 
society. 

Partly on the same ground, and partly because the paper 
had never received adequate support, he discontinued the pub- 
lication of the " Liberator" in December 1865, at the close of 
its thirty-fifth volume. 

He was chosen one of the vice-presidents of the American 
Freedman's Union Commission ; and in May, 1867, his health 
having been impaired by a serious fall, he made a fourth visit 
to England, and first visit to the Continent, to join his son and 
married daughter. In London he was complimented with a ban- 
quet by some of the most distinguished men of the kingdom, 
including John Bright, John Stuart Mill, the Duke of Argyll 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 59] 

and Ear] Russell, the latter of whom made a handsome apol- 
ogy for his mistaken utterances during our civil war. At 
various other places in England and Scotland he was publicly 
entertained in a similar manner for his connection with the 
anti-slavery cause, and also with the temperance cause, in 
America ; and, at Edinburgh, the freedom of the city was pre- 
sented to him by the Lord Provost, an honor never before 
bestowed upon an American, exce})t Mr. Peabody. At Paris he 
attended and addressed a World's Anti-Slavery Conference, and 
returned to America in November, 1867, since which he ha3 
resided in Boston. During the same year, also, Mr. Garrison's 
inestimable services to the cause of humanity were gracefully 
and heartily acknowledged in the form of a testimonial, amount- 
ing to about $33,000, raised from the nation at large, by public 
and private appeals, and presented to him in a strictly private 
manner. 

The letter of the committee who presented this testimonial, 
contains a grateful tribute to the unflagging zeal of Mr. Gar- 
rison in the cause of freedom, and assures him of the truly 
national character of the testimonial, coming from every 
quarter of the country, and from all classes of people. Mr. 
Garrison, in his reply, writes as follows : — " Little, indeed, did 
I know or anticipate how prolonged, or how virulent would be 
the struggle when I lifted up the standard of immediate emanci- 
pation, and essayed to rouse the nation to a sense of its guilt 
and danger. But, having put my hand to the plow, how could 
I look back ? For, in a cause so righteous, I could not doubt 
that, having turned the furrows, if I sowed it in tears, I should 
one day reap in joy. But, whether permitted to live to witness 
the abolition of slavery or not, 1 felt assured that, as I demanded 
nothing that was not clearly in accordance with justice and 



592 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

humanity, some time or other, if remembered at all, I should 
stand vindicated in the eyes of my countrymen." 

In connection with this, we may quote a few paragraphs 
from a recent letter of this whole-souled pioneer of emanci- 
pation : " I thank you," says he to an old and valued friend, 
'*for the warm and generous approval of my anti-slavery career, 
and rejoice with you in the total abolition of slavery, through- 
out our land. If, as a humble instrumentality, in effecting 
the overthrow of that nefarious system, I have been promi 
nent, it has not been of my seeking ; for, at the outset, I ex- 
pected to follow others, not to lead; and certainly, I neither 
sought nor desired conspicuity. Standing for a time alone under 
the banner of immediate and unconditional emancipation, I 
naturally excited the special enmity and wrath of the whole 
country, as the ' head and front' of abolition offending ; and now 
that the cause, once so odious, is victorious, and four millions of 
bondmen have had their fetters broken; it is not very surprising 
that, in this ' era of good feeling,' my labors and merits are 
immensely overrated. Others have labored more abundantly, 
encountered more perils, and endured more privations and 
sufferings; but every one has been indispensable, in his own 
place, to bring about the good and glorious result ; and it is not 
a question of comparison as to who was. earliest in the field, or 
who labored the most efficiently, but one of sympathy for the 
oppressed, and an earnest desire to see their yoke immediately 
broken. There should be no boasting on the one hand, nor 
jealousy on the other. Therefore, while disclaiming any 
peculiar deserts on my part, I think the 'testimonial,' which 
has been so unexpectedly raised in approval of my anti -slavery 
career, will not be viewed by any of my co-laborers as invidious, 
but rather as symbolizing a common triumph, and a common 
vindication." 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 




OME writer has said, that "oratory is a peculi2xrly 
jl^ American gift — not that there have not been elsewhere 
eloquent speakers, who could sway senates at their 
will — but, in America, public speaking is so universal, 
and the masses are so intelligent, that the inducements to culti- 
vate an art, which will enable the speaker to control the listen- 
ing crowds, are much stronger than in other countries." It is' 
undoubtedly true that there are more examples of brilliant 
eloquence in the pulpit, at the bar, and on the platform before 
public assemblies, here than in any other country where the 
English tongue is spoken ; and, though our composite language: 
may not possess the stateliness of the Castilian, the liquid music 
of the Italian, or the colloquial brilliancy of the French, there 
are extant orations in it, which are surpassed in beauty and 
grandeur by those of no other living tongue. 

There is a tendency among our orators to verbal diffuseness ; 
their speeches lack condensation, and hence, though they sound 
well, when delivered ore rotundo, they do not read so well. We 
miss the vigor, pith, and points which were, in part, supplied 
by the earnestness of the speaker's delivery. He is, all things 
considered, the most effective orator, who, with all the graces 
of manner, voice, and action, utters an address whose every 

word has been carefully selected, and conveys just the shade of 
593 3d 



5)94 MEN' OF OUR DAY. 

meaning intended, neither less nor more, and, at the same time. 
!50 combines his words and sentences as to produce the best 
effect of which the language is capable. It is just the power 
of fully accomplishing this, which makes Mr. Phillips the ^nesl 
orator in Christendom. His position, in this respect, is conceded 
alike bj friends and foes. 

Some have doubted whether eloquence was a natural or as 
acquired endowment, and those who inclined to the latter view 
have adduced the long and painful efions of Demosthenes; and, 
in our own time^ of Henry Ward Beecher, to overcome natural 
difficulties of delivejv . We cannot doubt that these men, and 
many others, have triumphed over great obstacles, in attaining a 
ready and effective utterance of the great thoughts which were 
seeking deliverance from the prison-house of the brain ; but the 
eloquence was behind all these obstacles, and it would have 
vent. It was the gift of God, and however it might be ob- 
scured at first, by imperfection of voice, by a faltering and hesi- 
tating tongue, or other impediments of speech, it was there, and 
must eventually force its way out. Happy those who, like Mr. 
Phillips, possess naturally all these graces of deliv^, and who 
owe little to the help of art Mr. Phillips' first public oration, 
delivered impromptu, possesses all the fine characteristics of his 
later ones, was delivered a\ 'th as much fervor and with as pow- 
erful an effect as any of the thousands since, which have held 
listening crowds in speechless delight. There was the same 
careful and apparently instinctive choice of the Ivst words to 
express his thoughts, the same keen and polished invective, the 
same svstem and order in his arrangement, and the same fervid 
and brilliant peroration. If he has never improved on that 
eloquent address, delivered now nearly thirty-five years ago, it 
is because that it was so perfect a production as to leave uo 
room for improvement. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 695 

Wkxpkll Phillips comes of the best blood of tlie Puritan 
and revolutionary stock. A lineal descendant of Rot. George 
Phillips, an eminent clergyman and scholar, who emigrated to 
Massachusetts from Norfolk county, England, in 1030, and 
served as the learned, wise, and zealous pastor of "Watertown, 
Massachusetts, for fourteen years, he numbers, also, among hia 
ancestry, direct or collateral, Samuel Phillips, Jr., Lieutenant- 
Governor of Massachusetts in lSOl-2, and founder of Phillips' 
academy, Andover; John Phillips, LL.D., the founder and 
liberal contributor to Phillips' academy, Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire, Dartmouth college, Phillips' academy, Andover. and 
Andover Theological seminary : his honor, William Phillips, 
Jr., of Boston, also a Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and 
his father, Hon. John Phillips, who was the first mayor of 
Boston. Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, November 29, 
1311. and ^^r enjoying the advantages of the best schools of 
his native city, entered Harvard college, where he graduated 
with high honors, in 1831, and commencing the study of law in 
the Cambridge law school, received his diploma there in 1833, 
and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1334. 

An accomplished scholar, with a far wider range of general 
culture than is ordinarily possessed by educated young men at 
the age of twenty -four, and with an intense fastidiousness of 
taste and thought, which ever made absolute perfection its ideal, 
Mr. Phillips was in danger, at this time, of becoming a mere 
purist, a dUettaiite, frittering away his noble powers on the 
8j>elling of a word, or shades of thought too nice to be distin- 
guished by any common mind, or in some other equally profitless 
pursuit, which should squander, rather than exercise his great 
gitls. But he was happily diverted to more profitable and 
useful labors, by the great events which occurred, just as he 
came into public life. 



596 MEN OF OUR l^AY. 

It was the era of the first great anti-slaverj excitement. TLe 
whole country was in arms at the behest of the slave power, 
which demanded the putting down of the men who had dared 
to question its authority. For his attacks on this monster 
iniquity, William Lloyd Garrison, as we have already seen, wad 
first assailed with the most bitter and abusive language, and 
afterwards dragged through the streets of Boston by a mob, for 
his advocacy of the cause of freedom. The people of the North, 
with but few exceptions, were wedded to the idol of slavery, 
and were indignant that any man should dare to ofiend the 
South, by whose trade they had their gain. 

Phillips had witnessed the indignities offered to Garrison, and 
his cruel persecution for his bold defence of freedom against 
oppression; and the old patriotic, freedom-loving blood which 
had made the Phillipses among the foremost of the patriots of 
the Revolution, was stirred within him. He avowed himself an 
abolitionist and co-worker with Garrison in 1836, and in 1839 
withdrew from the practice of law because he could not con- 
scientiously take the oath to support and defend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, believing, as he did, that that docu- 
ment was tainted with complicity with slavery, and hence, aa 
he forcibly expressed it, was " a covenant with death and an 
agreement with hell." 

He threw himself into the front of the battle against slavery, 
and for thirty years and more has fought oppression ; at first 
with a little but gallant band, abused, hated, threatened, a price 
set on his head, and the object of all the obloquy and scorn 
men could visit on him. After years of this strife, in which he 
and Mr. Garrison were always the standard bearers, there began 
to be signs of coming success for their principles ; then Phillips 
always took a long stride forward, and fought on, waiting for the 
masses to advance. His mind is so constituted that so long as 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 697 

there is a possible good to be obtained, an ideal, however vague 
and shadowy, to be reached, he cannot rest, and if the whole 
world were to advance to his ideal of to-day, he would be 
found far beyond in the distance, with aims and hopes and ends 
yet to be attained. 

With how much of suffering and anxiety he has maintained 
this long struggle, none but himself can ever know. He put 
aside for it a brilliant future in his profession, and made opposi- 
tion to slavery the great business of his life. Yet such was his 
winning eloquence, his vast learning, and his brilliant and 
versatile powers as a lecturer, that when he could be induced 
to lecture on any other subject, he drew larger audiences than 
any other man. He knew the unpopularity of his favorite 
topic, and shrewdly availed himself of his great abilities to 
secure for it a hearing. For years, when the lecture com- 
mittees applied to him to address audiences and asked his terms, 
his reply was: " If I speak on slavery, nothing: if on any other 
subject, one hundred dollars." 

His first noteworthy speech on slavery was unpremeditated, 
but its thrilling eloquence told on the audience, nine-tenths of 
whom were bitter!y opposed to him. The occasion was this. 
In the autumn of 1837, Rev. E. P. Lovejoy had been murdered 
at Alton, Illinois, and his press broken up, by a mob, mostly 
from Missouri, on account of the anti-slavery principles he had 
avowed in his paper. A meeting was called in Boston, by Rev. 
W. E. Channing and others, to assemble in Faneuil Hall (the 
use of which was at first denied but finally reluctantly granted), 
to notice in a suitable manner Mr. Lovejoy's death as a martyr 
to freedom. After some addresses, a Mr. Austin, attorney- 
general of Massachusetts, rose and defended, in a very bitter and 
violent speech, the rioters, declared that Lovejoy came to hia 
death by his own imprudence, and that the utterance of such 



598 MEN OP OUR DAY. 

sentiments as he had avowed, ought to be suppressed. Mr. 
Phillips replied in one of the most eloquent and scathing speeches 
ever delivered, running a parallel between the conduct of 
Warren at Bunker Hill, and Lovejoj at Alton, so effective, thai 
the audience, who had, at first, been determined that he should 
not be permitted to speak, at last greeted him with cheers. 

Mr. Phillips was most thoroughly in his element at the anni- 
versaries of the American Anti-Slavery Society, when, from year 
to year, he would review the progress made, and hail upon the 
pro-slavery leaders and partisans such a storm of invective, every 
sentence polished but keen as a battle axe, that those of them 
who were present would writhe under it, as if in intense agony. 
Year after year, such men as Isaiah Rynders and his comrades, 
would attempt to break up these anniversaries by mob-violence, 
and often was Mr. Phillips' life threatened ; but he coiild not be 
put down. There was that power and dignity in his manner, 
which would quell and silence the fiercest mob ; and when they 
were hushed, he would take the opportunity to say his severest 
and bitterest words. 

No man living excels him in power over an audience. The 
writer once listened to his lecture on Toussaint L'Ouverture, 
and was surprised to see a man in the audience well known as 
a Democrat and a strongly pro-slavery partisan, applauding him 
to the echo, and most vigorously in those passages which were 
most intensely anti-slavery, and most decided in their depre- 
ciation of the white general (Napoleon), as compared with the 
negro (Toussaint). 

At the close of the lecture, falling in with this Democrat, the 
writer could not avoid saying to him, "How happens it that 
you, an intense pro-slavery man, should applaud and enjoy the 
hard hita and telling blows of Wendell Phillips against 
slavery?" " Oh I" was the reply, "of course I don't believe a 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 599 

word he says, but he did say it so well and so neatly, that 1 
couldn't help applauding." Nothing but genuine eloquence of 
the highest character could have produced such an effect as 
that. 

When Mr. Delane, of the London Times, was in this country, a 
friend asked him to go with him and hear Wendell Phillips; 
he declined at first, saying that he had no wish to listen to a 
foaming abolition lecture ; but at the urgent request of his friend 
finally consented. The lecture closed, his friend, who had 
watched his countenance during the lecture, asked how he was 
]:)leased. " Pleased !" answered the editor, " I never heard any 
thing like it ; we have no orator in England who can compare 
with him. He is the most eloquent speaker living." 

Mr. Phillips has not expended all his force on opposition to 
slavery; temperance, peace, the rights of woman, and other 
measures of reform, have ever found in him a ready, powerful, 
and eloquent advocate. His devotion to woman partakes much 
of the lofty character of the best days of chivalry, and leads one 
inevitably to the conviction that his own wife must have very 
nearly filled his exalted ideal of the true woman. 

The few review articles from the pen of Mr. Phillips on other 
than reform topics, his published volume of orations, and the 
lectures on scientific subjects which he had delivered (the lec- 
ture on " The Lost Arts" has been repeated, it is said, many hun- 
dreds of times), indicate the breadth of his scholarship, and the 
great loss which science and literature have sustained, in relin- 
quishing him to become the Apostle of Reform. 

Since the war, Mr. Phillips has not, as Mr. Garrison did so 
gracefully, accepted the verdict of the people that his work was 
accomplished, and that henceforth he might peacefully enjoj 
the victories which his good sword had won. A little younger 
than his friend Garrison, he has more of the Ironsides blood iu 



600 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

him than he, and he prefers to fight on, though it be with 
invisible foes, or even with windmills, like the chivalric Don 
Quixote. 

His ideal man is placed on a higher level than ever 
before, and his long continued use of invective has made him 
soured and bitter toward all men who do not fully come up to it. 
He is a man who will always do best to head a forlorn hope, 
always win the greatest triumphs when in a minority. Indeed 
it is impossible for him to be anywhere else. The atmosphere 
of a majority, in agreement with him, oppresses him as an en- 
-closed house does a Rocky Mountain trapper. He cannot 
breathe in it. 

Though affiliated by all his past labors and the convictions 
..of many years with the Republican party, he persistently 
refuses to work with it ; now denouncing its candidates with 
the utmost bitterness, and anon accepting a nomination, without 
the slightest hope of success, for Governor, from the Labor- 
Reform party; an apostle of temperance for five and thirty 
years, he accepts the support of the Anti^Prohibitory Liquor 
Law men in Massachusetts, to shatter and rend the party there 
from whom he has received all his honors and applause ; and after 
thus seeking its disruption, turns about and berates it furiously 
for not doing as he desired. But these vagaries are, after all, 
but spots on the sun ; we could wish them away, or at all 
events less conspicuous ; we could wish our peerless orator 
more practical and more tractable ; but we cannot forget his 
brave deeds when he stood almost alone against the world; we 
cannot cease to remember that he was in those days always in the 
forefront of the hottest battle ; and though some of the hard 
blows he then received have made the veteran a little crusty, 
yet we can well afford to bear with him for the good he has 
done in the past. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 601 

In private life Mr. Phillips bears the reputation of being one 
of the most genial and lovable of men, and in all the social 
relations of family and friends, his presence adds new zest to 
society, and gives increased pleasure to the circles which are 
favored with it. 




GERRIT SMITH 



EKE we called upon to point out a man whose whole 

course of life had been controlled, both in public and 

private, by the conscientious desire to obey the great 

law of love, " whatsoever things ye would that men 

should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," we should have 

no hesitation in selecting Gerrit Smith as that man. 

He may have erred in judgment at times ; his measures for 

accomplishing good may have failed, in some instances, either 

from their own imperfection, or the weakness, stupidity or un- 

worthiness of those whom he has sought to benefit ; he may, in 

his anxieties to benefit his fellow-man, have been led into 

erroneous and dangerous views of the plans, purposes, and 

revelation of Him, v.'hom yet, in his heart of hearts, we believe 

be reverently worships ; but of his earnest desire to do his 

whole duty to his fellow-man there can be no question. 

Gerrit Smith was born in Utica, New York, March 6th, 

1797. His father, Hon. Peter Smith, was known in the early 

part of the present century as one of the largest land-holders in 

the United States. At his death his great fortune was divided 

mainly between his two sons, Peter Sken Smith and Gerrit 

Smith, the former receiving the larger share of the personal, 

and the latter the greater part of the real estate. 

Gerrit Smith was graduated at Hamilton college, Clinton, 
602 



GERRIT SMITH. . 603 

New York, in 1818. He never entered himself as a student of 
law, but was admitted to practice in the State and Federal 
courts of New York in 1853, and has participated in several 
important trials. 

His philanthropic disposition led him at an early age to take 
an active part in the benevolent enterprises of the day. In 
1825, he connected himself with the American Colonization 
Society, in the hope that it would facilitate the emancipation 
of the slaves. He contributed largely to its funds, but finally 
becoming satisfied that it was not the intention of its founders 
or directors to promote general emancipation, he withdrew 
from it in 1835, and has been ever since identified, heart and 
soul, with the voting portion of the anti-slavery party. 

Gifted with a simple and natural eloquence, very effective 
with the masses, he has plead the cause of the slave for thirty 
years past with great earnestness, and a confiding faith in the 
eventual triumph of the principles of emancipation ; and that 
his faith might not be unsustained by works, he has given, 
with a princely liberality, to every effort for the promotion of 
the abolition of slavery. 

It is a characteristic of Mr. Smith's mind that he must push 
his views of philanthropy to their ultimate logical conclusions, 
and he cannot rest in any thing short of these. Thus holding 
that slavery was wrong, and that no man had a right to enjoy 
the rewards of the enforced labor of another, he came to the 
farther conclusion, that it was wrong to purchase or use any 
thing produced by the labor of the slave, and hence he refused 
to wear or use any article made of cotton, unless he could be 
satisfied that it was free labor cotton, any sugar except that 
produced by free labor, any rice except that grown in India or 
China. 

But his philanthropy was not confined to the slave; the 



604 . MEN OF OUR DAY. 

victim of intemperance was equally an object of his syinpatby 
and commiseration, and his own eloquence, and bis means, were 
freely expended in the endeavor to restrain or prohibit the sale 
of intoxicating drinks. He was strongly opposed to the use of 
tobacco, and aided in the publication and circulation of tracts 
to dissuade people from its use. He believed woman oppressed 
by the laws, and exerted himself to have them changed so aa 
to better her condition. He aided in prison reformation and 
the establishment of juvenile reformatories ; and when the news 
of the attempts to fasten slavery iipon Kansas came to his ears, 
though in general a peace-man and non-resistant, he contributed 
largely for the purchase of Sharp's rifles, and for the outfit 
and forwarding of large bodies of sturdy northern settlers to 
that territory. Though by inheritance and purchase from his 
fellow-heirs, one of the largest land-holders in the United 
States, he had convinced himself of the wrongfulness of land 
monopoly, and practically illustrated his views, by distributing 
two hundred thousand acres of land, partly among institutions 
of learning, but mostly among the poor white and black men, 
to whom he allotted, in tracts of about fifty acres, one hundred 
and twenty thousand acres of land, accompanying the deed in 
many instances with a sum of money sufficient to enable them 
to erect a cabin, and procure a little stock. 

Some of his colonists did well ; but many, a majority, we 
fear, proved unworthy of his kindness, and after receiving his 
bounty, abandoned their lands, and reviled him because he 
would not support them in idleness. 

It was in connection with these gifts of land, that he first 
became acquainted with John Brown, afterward of Kansas. 
Mr. Brown was of great service to him in the care and instruc- 
tion of his colored colonists, and some of them, under his 
influence, did well. In the Kansas troubles, Mr. Smith put 



GERRIT SMITH. 605 

money into Brown's hands frequently, to distribute among the 
poor in that territory. Brown visited him a few months before 
his Harper's Ferry raid, but did not communicate to him his 
plans. 

In 1852, Mr. Smith was elected to Congress from the twenty- 
second Congressional district of New York, but resigned at the 
close of the first or long session, on account of the pressure of 
his private affairs, and his extreme disrelish for public life. 
After the John Brown raid, in 1859, an attempt was made by 
Virginians, and other pro-slavery leaders, to identify hirn and 
other prominent anti-slavery men at the North with the move- 
ment, and to demonstrate that it was an extensive conspiracy 
against the South. The charge was absolutely false ; but Mr. 
Smith being at the time in very feeble health, and being 
excited by the virulent attacks made upon him, became for a 
short time insane. He speedily, however, recovered his reason, 
with the improvement of his general health. In 1861, he 
entered with great spirit and patriotism into the efforts for 
raising regiments and sustaining the Government in a vigorous 
prosecution of the war. He addressed a number of large 
gatherings on this subject, and, as usual, gave liberally for it. 

The war over, he inclined to the policy of extreme mercy to 
the South, and in May, 1867, at the request of one of Mr. 
Jefferson Davis's counsel, became one of the signers of his bail- 
bond, qualifying in the sum of five thousand dollars for hi3 
appearance. His course in the matter, like that of Mr. Greeley, 
occasioned considerable animadversion, but both gentlemen 
defended themselves by published letters, to the best of their 
ability. 

For several years past, Mr. Smith has advocated, both by 
published speeches, and public essays and appeals, a larger 
liberty of opinion, and freedom from what he believed the 



606 WEN OF OUR DAY, 

bondage of sect. These views, which at first took only the 
form of a protest against denominationalism, have gradually, 
from his habit of pushing his speculations to their ultimate 
conclusions, developed into a modified deism, rejecting many 
of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, and assailing, with 
great vehemence, the Christian church, and to some extent, the 
Scriptures. In this crusade he has made very few converts, and 
in common with most of' his friends, we believe his errors to 
be rather of the head than the heart. 

Under his abundant, almost lavish giving, Mr. Smith's 
princely estate has diminished till he is now comparatively poor. 
Yet his generous nature remains, and we doubt not he suffers 
more than the applicant for his bounty, when he is obliged to 
denv or diminish the amount of his beneficence. 

Mr. Smith published a volume of his "Speeches in Congress,*' 
in 1856 ; a volume entitled " Sermons and Speeches by Gerrit 
Smith," in 1861 ; and numberless pamphlets and broad sheets. 
His latest pamphlets are, '' The Theologies," 1866 ; " Nature's 
Theology," 1867; "A Letter from Gerrit Smith to Albert 
Barnes.'' 1868 ; and several other pamphlets, mostly political, in 
1870-72. He has taken very decided ground in favor of Presi- 
dent Grant's reelection, and against his old friend Greeley, in the 
spring and summer of 1872. 



REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 




IE hazard little in saying that there is no living nan in 
America whose name is more widely known than that 
of the Plymouth pastor. Other clergymen, other public 
lecturers, other authors, other reformers (for he is 
equally popular in all these capacities), may have a wide spread 
local reputation ; they may be quite well known in one section 
or another of the country, and their names may have some 
currency in all sections, but from the inhabitant of the re- 
motest province of the Dominion of Canada on the northeast, 
to the Rio Grande in the southeast, from Alaska to the 
Capes of Florida, there is no man of ordinary intelligence, 
black or white, who does not know something of Henry Ward 
Beecher. 

Yet this man has held no civil office, or been a candidate 
for any ; he has commanded no armies, fought no battles with 
carnal weapons ; he is not a millionaire, nor has he ever pos- 
sessed the fortune to endow or establish a college, a hospital, a 
seminary, or an asylum. He is eloquent, but he has not the 
musical voice, nor does he utter the polished periods of Phillips, 
or the grand and stately sentences of Sumner ; he is brave and 
fearless, but pluck is not so rare an attribute in American 
character, as to make its possessor an object of such universal 

note. 

607 



603 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Yet it is certain that he possesses qualities and talents which 
have made him, in some respects, the foremost man, and the 
finest representative of the best traits of American character 
our country has yet produced. 

For twenty-five years, he has drawn to the plain church 
edifice in which he preaches, in winter and summer, in spring 
and autumn, a constant congregation of from twenty-five hundred 
to three thousand persons, in fair weather and foul, and very 
often hundreds more have endeavored in vain to get within the 
sound of his voice. Among his audiences, are men from every 
State in the Union, some of them renting sittings for the year, 
to secure seats during the month or two they may be in New 
York. The annual rental of the pews of this church brings in 
a revenue of from $50,000 to $60,000, and has steadily increased 
from year to year. 

!N o such audience could have been maintained for a fourth 
of that period by any clap-trap or artifice on the part of the 
preacher; certainly not in a community as intelligent as that of 
Brooklyn. 

But the delivering of three discourses a week, of such 
wonderful freshness, originality, and eloquence, that when re- 
ported for the press, as they have been regularly, they have 
secured hundreds of thousands of readers (and during the w^hole 
period of twenty-one years, he has never repeated a sermon, 
so affluent is his imagination, and so abundant his mental re- 
sources), and the pastoral care of a church now numbering 
about two thousand members, have by no means exhausted 
the extraordinary vitality of this remarkable man. During a 
period of ten or twelve years, he was a constant contributor to 
the Indepencknt newspaper, his articles being signed with an 
asterisk, and was generally, but erroneously supposed to be the 
editor of the paper. From 1861 to 1863, he was its editor-in- 



REV. HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 609 

chief, and wrote such vigorous stirring leaders, .is are seldom 
found anywhere, and after withdrawing from that paper he was 
a constant contributor to others, and since 1869 has been the 
brilliant editor of the ChristiaH Union, now the most widely cir 
culated religious paper in the world. 

For the whole twenty-rive years he has been an able and promi- 
nent leader in most oi the measures of reform, addressing 
audiences all over the country at least thirty or forty times in 
the course of the year, on Anti-Slavery and Republican topics, 
Temperance, the Reformation of Morals, Juvenile Reform, etc., 
and until the past two or three years delivered about fifty 
lyceum lectures a year, trom Maine to Minnesota. As the best 
extemporaneous platform speaker in America, he has always 
been in demand on all anniversary occasions, and never failed 
to acquit himself with credit. He has found time to prepare 
several books of his own, and to revise volumes of his sermons, 
selected passages from his discourses, etc., which others have 
compiled. Within the past year and a half he has written and 
published, first as a newspaper serial, and afterwards as a volume, 
a novel of New England', life, and is now engaged upon a "Life- 
of Christ," of which the first volume has recently appeared. In 
the abundance of these avocations, and the immense correspon- 
dence which they necessitate, he finds leisure for the cultivation 
of his artistic tastes, and his intense love of the beautiful, both in 
nature and art. lie ranks very high as a connoisseur in all art 
matters. Ilis bouse is filled with choice pictures; his large 
library contains the best works on art, many of them with costly 
illustrations ; and both in Brooklyn and at his Peekskill farm,, 
where he spends much of his time during the later summer and> 
early autumn, he has a great profusion of flowers. 

Let us turn now to the life history of this man, so wonderful 

for his genius, the versatility of his talents and his untiring 
39 



610 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

industry, and see if, by so doing, we can obtain any insight into 
the sources of his great powers. 

The Beecher family is one of extraordinary gifts and intel- 
lectual power. They trace their ancestry to John Beecher, who 
came over to New England with Davenport in 1636, and set- 
tled, with his mother, in New Haven, His descendants seem 
to have been favored in their choice of wives, and some of 
the best Scotch and Welsh blood in the nation has mingled 
with the powerful physique of the English stock, to produce 
a combination of remarkable vitality and intellectual energy. 
Eev. Lyman Beecher, D, D., the father of Henry Ward, was 
one of the most remarkable men of the last generation. It 
was said of him that he was the father of more brains than 
any other man in America," and the remark was undoubtedly 
true. Of his thirteen children eleven grew up to adult age, 
and all his seven sons became clergymen, and most of them 
were distinguished for intellectual ability, while of the four 
daughters, two. Miss Catharine E. Beecher, and Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, have won a world-wide reputation, the former 
by her able works on education, physiological, social, intel- 
lectual and domestic ; the latter by her brilliant fictions, which 
have achieved a greater success than was ever accorded to 
those of any other writer. Dr. Lyman Beecher was brought 
up on a farm, but entered Yale college in 1793, and graduated 
in 1797, with a fair standing. He was a vigorous original 
thinker, and after he entered the ministry soon attained a high 
reputation for the keenness of his dialectic powers, and the 
energv and fire which he threw into his public and private 
teachings. He vras eloquent, wonderfully so, after, his fashion, 
and his powerful denunciations of intemperance, and of the 
Unitarian dogmas, have never been surpassed in vividness or 
point. He wrote, too, on controversial subjects, with decided 



REV. HENRY WARD BKECHER. 611 

ability, and his written productions were remarkahle for finish 
and purity of style. He was successively pastor of a Presby- 
terian church at Easthampton, Long Island, a Congregational 
cliurch at Litchfield, Connecticut, and the Hanover Square 
(afterwards Bowdoin street) Congregational church, Boston. In 
1882, at the age of nearly fifty-seven, he was called to the presi- 
dency of the Lane Theological seminary, near Cincinnati, Ohio, 
where he remained till 1851, when he returned to Boston, and 
in 1856 to Brooklyn, where his last years were spent. He was 
thrice married. His first wife, the mother of Henry Ward 
Beecher, was a Miss Eoxana Foote of Guilford, Connecticut, a 
woman of remarkable intellectual powers, great personal attrac- 
tions, and a most gentle, lovely, and engaging temper. The 
subject of our sketch inherits, from his father, his abundant 
vitality, his intellectual vigor and earnestness, his overflowing 
humor, and his power to move and thrill the masses ; and from 
his mother, his artistic tastes, his fondness for nature, his intui- 
tions toward the beautiful, and that delicacy, tact, refinement 
and amiability, which have made him so widely popular. 

Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 
June 24, 1813. The first thirteen years of his life were passed 
in this quiet rural village, which had then a circle of intellec- 
tual, cultivated men and women, such as are not often found in 
much larger towns. When he was but little more than three 
years of age, he lost his mother, a great loss for a sensitive, 
affectionate, and thoughtful child ; but one made up, in part, by 
the influence of the gifted and accomplished woman, who, some 
fourteen months later, took her place as the wife of Dr. Beecher. 
It is indicative of his thoughtfulness and affection, young as he 
was, at the time of his mother's death, that having heard that 
she was to be buried in the ground, and again that she had gone 
to heaven, he commenced digging very earne.stly under the 



612 MEX OF OUR DAY. 

Window of her room, and could hardly be persuaded to desist, 
saying that " he wanted to dig down and get to heaven, where 
his mamma wa8." 

As he grew older, lie was a healthy, robust boy, active in all 
outdoor sports and exercises, a little clumsy perhaps, but affec- 
tionate and loving. He gave at this time but little promise of 
his subsequent intellectual power ; his voice was husky and 
thick, and he spoke so indistinctly that it was a cause of anxiety 
to his family ; he was shy, and had the misfortune of losing 
his memory, or rather becoming confused, from shyness, when 
called on to repeat what he had learned. In one of those inter- 
esting reminiscences of his childhood, in which he is prone to 
indulge in his lecture-room talks, he tells us that he was at 
times very unhappy in childhood, from the difficulty he found 
in obtaining from any body any clear explanations of the great 
ethical and theological questions which haunted his soul. He 
had been brought up under a very rigid, Calvinistic training, 
and the dogmas of that creed puzzled and distressed him, and 
any efforts which were made to explain them, only confused 
him the more. In the end, however, this exercise of the mind 
with great, though but partially understood thoughts, may have 
been a benefit, for it made him more anxious, in ois own minis- 
try, to use the utmost clearness and simplicity in explaining 
these truths to the young, the simple and the ignorant. On his 
father's removal to Boston, he found himself in a new sphere. 
He was sent to the Boston Latin school, but the impatience of 
what seemed to him unmeaning forms, and the deficiency of his 
verbal memory, made the formal training there inexpressibly 
irksome to him. The wharves, and the ships, with their precious 
cargoes from the far orient, which lay beside them, roused his 
passion for the sea, and boy like, he resolved to become a sailor. 
His father somehow ascertained his restless craving, and like a 



BEV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 613 

skilfal tactician, did not discourage it, but turned it into a 
better channel. He was sent to the Mount Pleasant school, 
at Amherst, Massachusetts, to study mathematics and other 
branches, to qualify himself, should he subsequently desire it, 
to enter the navy. Here, he fell under the care of excellent 
and skilful teachers, who roused his interest and ambition in 
mathematical studies; by careful and protracted training greatly 
improved his elocution, and gave him that impulse to study 
which made him a really brilliant student. Physiological stu- 
dies, and indeed those appertaining to physical science generally, 
had a strong attraction for him, and the charming illustrations 
drawn from nature and natural scenery which have begemmed 
so many of his discourses and lectures, have been among the re- 
sults of these favorite pursuits. 

Though decidedly a religious man in his college course (for 
he entered Amherst college in 1830) the superabundance of the 
humorous element in his nature, made him something of a wag, 
never given to malicious or practical jokes, but brimfull and-. 
running over with fun; and those who know him now, do not 
need to be assured that he did not leave all his humorous 
propensities behind him at Amherst. Yet this ga}'-, joyous 
temper, was but the sparkle and foam at the surface ; below it 
there were depths of earnest tenderness, which demonstrated 
the truth of the old ejugram, that "tears are akin to laughter." 

His thorough previous training had given him more than the 
usual time for general reading and culture, and apart from his 
physiological and phrenological researches, he read largely of 
the works of the great divines and authors of the seventeenth 
century, and thus imbibed that intense love for the vigorous 
Saxon of that period, which has been one of the many elements 
of his great success as a preacher. The taste thus formed has 
been since sedulously cultivated, and it would surprise a person 



614 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

whose attention had not previously been called to it, to note 
how verj few words, not of direct Saxon origin, are to be found 
in his sermons. He has, indeed, been charged with making an 
unwarrantable use of the sermons of the old divines, but the 
charge is as absurd as it would be to accuse him of borrowing 
from Webster's dictionary. He has borrowed their quaint 
modes of thought, at times, but that was inevitable in the effort 
to express the ideas of our time, in the garb of Saxon undeiiled 
which they used and delighted in. Beyond this there has been 
no plagiarism on his part. 

His college course was not completed till 1834, two years 
after his father had accepted the presidency of Lane seminary, 
and thither he went to pursue his theological studies, and to 
find his father in the fore-front of the fierce battle, then waging 
between the old and new school parties in the Presbyterian 
church. Under such circumstances, his theological training 
was likely to be dialectic, rather than practical ; but it was not 
in the power of even his father's great influence to make him a 
controversialist. He reverenced his father, and, as in duty 
bound, took up arms in his defence, but his own theology was 
of a more peaceful, even if a less logical character, and though 
in the battle, he was not of it. His theological course completed, 
he married, and was ordained as pastor of a Presbyterian 
church in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. His fine descriptive powers, 
and the intensely sympathetic character of his preaching, led to 
his transference, two years later (in 1839), to the pastorate of the 
First Presbyterian church in Indianapolis. Here a wide door 
opened before him. He had not been long a resident of the 
capital of the State, before his church was thronged with 
crowds, eager to hear the young preacher, whose vivid word 
painting and power, in presenting Christ in his relations to 
humanity in all the forms of joy and sorrow, was something so 



REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 615 

new and impressive. He delivered a course of lectures to young 
men while in Indianapolis, which were published, and had an 
immense sale, which has continued to the present day. Even 
thus early, his tendency to combine, with his pastoral duties, 
labors not usually regarded as clerical, began to manifest itself. 
For a few months before his ordination, he had edited the 
organ of the Presbyterian church, at Cincinnati, in the absence 
of its responsible editor ; but at Indianapolis, in addition to his 
other duties, he undertook the editorship of an agricultural 
paper, and discussed, learnedly and interestingly too, the rota- 
tion of crops, manures, the best methods of cultivation, breeds 
of cattle, horses and swine, and other topics which most interest 
the farmer. He could not avoid, however, having a depart- 
ment for floriculture, and in that he poured out the wealth of 
his love of nature. The paper was popular, and reached a 
large circulation for a paper of that class. 

Meantime his reputation as a preacher was growing also. 
Eastern men, making a tour of the West, were attracted by the 
fame of the young Indianapolis pastor, went to hear him from 
curiosity, and were delighted. Some of these men being about 
to establish a new Congregational church in Brooklyn, New 
York, resolved to make the effori to obtain him for their pastor. 

Their call was, after some hesitation, accepted, and in the 
autumn of 1847, he entered upon his labors with this new 
church in Brooklyn, to which the name of Plymouth church 
had been given. They met at first, and till their church edi- 
fice was erected, in a rude, plain, but capacious " tabernacle ;" 
and this was at once filled to overflowing. It very soon be- 
came the fashion to "go and hear Beecher;" and those who 
went once, were very sure to come again. The boyish-looking 
pastor (for though thirty-four years old when he removed to 
Brooklyn, he had a very youthful appearance), with his easy, 



616 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

careless ways, had a faculty, when the inspiratioa was on him, 
of winning all hearts, now creating a smile by the aptness and 
homeliness of some illustration, or by the slight touch of 
humor which he could not wholly suppress, and anon melting 
them to tears by his deep pathos, and his vivid portrayal of the 
Divine love. When the church edifice was completed, that too 
was soon filled, nay, crammed, with eager listeners. People 
said that it would not last ; that as soon as the excitement was 
over, his congregation would dwindle till it was no larger than 
that of other pastors : but it has kept up to its first standard, 
or rather increased, for twenty-fiive years. Repeated attempts 
have been made by other denominations to find a man who 
would draw to their churches such a body of worshippers, but 
in vain. 

Meantime, Mr. Beecher never seemed elated by his success ; 
he knew, of course, as every strong man does, his power, but it 
did not make him vain. His church grew in numbers, and has 
been, for years past the largest evangelical church m the 
Northern States, if not in the country. In the Sunday-school, 
in the mission -schools, and in its ample support of all noble 
and good enterprises, Plymouth church has been worthy of its 
pastor. When he was installed as pastor, the congregation 
gave him a yearly salary of fifteen hundred dollars. They 
have increased it, till now, for two or three years past, it has 
been twenty thousand dollars. 

As we have already said, Mr. Beecher does a vast amount 
of work outside of his duties as preacher and pastor. He has 
so much vitality, such a power for work in him, that he would 
be wretched if he could not expend his vital force on good and 
worthy objects. He has made good use of his physiological 
studies in keeping himself always in the best possible condition 
for efl&cient labor. He takes much active exercise, avoids 



EEV. HENRY WAKD BEECHER. 617 

whatever is likely to impair his health, and trains himself to 
those economies of time and toil which are the result of 
thorough system. When he works intellectually it is with all 
his might, and when he rests, he does it as thoroughly. Ilia 
labors as contributor and editor of the Independent, his plat- 
form speeches, his lectures, his efforts to benefit the city of 
his adoption, his active political canvass in 1856 and 1860, 
for Fremont and Lincoln, his great expenditure of time, 
strength, zeal and money in raising the Long Island regiment 
and other troops for the war, his constant and effective labors 
in behalf of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and the 
efforts necessary to keep so large a congregation at a white 
heat, in their interest in behalf of the war and its objects, 
though in him only the natural and easy manifestation of hia 
great capacity for work, would have been of themselves more 
than most men could have endured. Yet except during hia 
visit to Eugland in 1863, he intermitted none of his ordinary 
pulpit labors during the war, nor did he manifest any less than 
his usual fervor and eloquence in them. 

It must be acknowledged, however, that his extraordinary 
exertions, during the first two years of the war, together with 
the editorial charge of the Independent^ and his duties as 
preacher and pastor, had, for once, sapped his strength, and 
were making inroads upon a constitution so vigorous as pre- 
viously to require no seasons of relaxation and rest. He found 
himself compelled to take a voyage to England, and endeavor 
thus to restore his wasted strength, and fit himself the better 
for the arduous toils yet to come. It was his intention, as he 
went solely for the restoration of his health, not to preach or 
speak in public during his absence, and to this resolution he 
adhered during his first visit to England and while on tlie Con- 
tinent. But, on his return to England, in October, 1863, he 



618 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

found that our friends there required encouragement, and that 
there was a necessity for disabusing the minds of the English 
people of the errors and falsehoods, which had been widely pro- 
pagated among them by the emissaries of the South. He spoke 
at Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London, to 
audiences of many thousands, and though, in Manchester and 
Liverpool, the friends of the rebellion had assembled mobs to 
prevent his speaking, and had attemped to accomplish this, not 
only by noise, but by threats of personal violence, he succeeded, 
by dint of fearlessness, good humor, and the power of his voice, 
in calming the tumult and making himself heard on all the 
points of the controversy between the two great parties at 
home, as well as on the dif&culties between the United States 
and European nations. These addresses were of great service iu 
strengthening the hearts of our friends in England, in diffusing 
correct and much needed information in regard to the real 
issues at stake, and in encouraging the true men at home. It 
was a noble service, nobly rendered. 

After his return, Mr. Beecher entered with renewed zeal 
upon the work of aiding our soldiers, providing for the 
wounded and their families, and upholding the administratiou, 
during the trying period of the great battle year, 1864. After 
the close of the war, he went to Charleston, and assisted in 
raising the old flag upon Sumter, making an eloquent address 
on the occasion. 

Since that time, in addition to his clerical and editorial labors 
(on the Christian Union, since 1869,) he has been active in other 
literary enterprises, has devoted much time to public addresses of 
all sorts, political, literary and religious; and during the past 
year (1872) has delivered a course of theological lectures on 
jreaching (on the Safe foundation) to the Yale Divinity School. 

Mr. Beecher's disposition, though brave, as becomes his 



REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 619 

lineage, is yet greatly inclined to mercy. When the war was 
over he was in favor of the formula of Mr. Greeley, " Uni- 
versal Amnesty and Universal Suffrage," and was so much 
inclined to forgive the rebels, whom he supposed to be gene- 
rally penitent, that he would have been disposed to accept the 
universal amnesty without the suffrage, for the present, believ- 
ing that this would come by and by. He had full confidence, 
too, in Mr. Johnson's good faith and real desire for the recon- 
struction of the rebellious States on righteous and just prin- 
ciples. For a while, these views alienated from him some of 
those who had long been his warmest friends, and caused those 
who had been his bitter enemies to praise him, and to offer 
him political positions. This and the course of events soon 
opened his eyes to the false position in which the promptings 
of his generous nature had placed him. It is needless to say, 
that he had never, for an instant, faltered in his devotion to 
the great principles for which he and his friends had so long 
contended. It was only a question of the propriety of certain 
measures, and ere long, he saw his mistake, and took his place 
with the earnest friends of reconstruction on the principles laid 
down by Congress. 

In the campaign of 1872 he supported President Grant, though 
not with the ardor of some of his previous campaign speeches, 
and with a fairness and justice toward those who held other 
views, which was higiily honorable to him and worthy of gen- 
eral imitation by public speakers. 

We conclude, then, this sketch of Mr. Beecher, with the 
earnest hope that a life, so full of usefulness, so active in 'every 
good cause, so earnest in the promotion of all patriotic meas- 
ures, may be long protracted, and that a generation yet to come 
may be blessed by his ministrations. 



MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D., 

BISHOP OF THE METUODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




HE bishopric of the Methodist Episcopal Church involves 
for the discharge of its multifarious duties such an in 
finitude of labor, such constant and active exercise of 
all a man's powers, physical, intellectual and moral, that 
it seems wonderful that any of the bishops can ever find a 
moment's opportunity to get out of the rut of official duty. 
There are Conferences to be presided over, on both sides of the 
continent, causes to be heard and decided (for the bishops are 
each in their way appellate judges), the missionary affairs, 
involving an expenditure of one or two millions, to be superin- 
tended, and the other great interests of the denomination looked 
after, and rightfully or wrongfully, every itinerant who has just 
the charge he did not want, and every church which has just the 
pastor they did not ask for, feels that the bishop has been led 
astray by some enemy of theirs. But if this is ordinarily the 
case, how much more onerous have been the duties of the 
bishops for the last few years, when owing to the death of seve- 
ral of their number, and the failing health of others, the work 
which eight men could not acccomplish, and for which sixteen 
would not have been too many, was laid upon the shoulders of 
four, none of them very vigorous. How a man so overworked 
can find time for any literary or philanthropic labor outside of 
his offie^ial duties passes our comprehension. Yet Bishop Simp- 
620 



MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 621 

son has, during the past ten or twelve years, accomplished an 
amount of work outside of his episcopal duties which most men 
would consider sufficient to entitle them to a retiring pension. 

Matthew Simpson was born in Cadiz, Ohio, June 21st, 1810. 
While he was yet an infant his father died, and his mother, an 
accomplished and highly educated woman of great piety and 
judgment, undertook to educate him for the ministry. She 
early grounded him in the English branches, and finding him an 
apt and ready scholar, with a remarkable facility for acquiring 
the languages, encouraged him to commence the study of Ger- 
man when he was but eight years of age. He mastered the 
language so readily that the following year he read the Bible 
through in German. He subsequently studied Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew, as well as some of the modern languages. He also 
became a proficient in physical and philosophical studies. In 
1829, he graduated from Madison College, though he had 
attended but very few terms there. The same year he joined 
the Methodist Church, but seemed averse to preparing himself 
for the ministry, which had been the goal of his mother's hopes. 
He preferred, on the contrary, the medical profession, and after 
a very thorough course of medical ,study, graduated M. D. in 
1833. But though he entered upon the practice of his profession 
with zeal and the best prospect of success, his mother's prayers 
and entreaties still followed him, and almost without being con- 
scious of it, he found himself drawn toward the ministry. At 
first he contented himself with exercising his gifts according to 
the custom of his church as a local preacher ; but presently he 
began to devote himself to theological studies. In 1835, he was 
admitted to deacon's orders, and in 1837, entered the itineracy. 
But while he possessed rare abilities as a preacher, his thorough 
and extensive scholarship caused his services to be in demand 
for the collegiate institutions of his church. In 1839, he was 



622 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

called to the Presidency of Indiana Asbury University, and in 
1841, transferred to the Vice-Presidency of Alleghany College, 
and the Professorship of Natural Sciences there. He remained 
in this position till 1851, but from 1848 took upon him the 
added duties of editor of the Western (now the Pittsburgh) 
Christian Advocate, which he conducted with marked ability till 
his elevation to the bishopric in 1852. He was, when elected, 
the youngest of the bishops, and though all have been abundant 
in their labors, and several have gone down to their graves 
from overwork, it is no disparagement to the others to say that 
Bishop Simpson has been the hardest worker in the episcopate. 
Blessed with a vigorous constitution, great powers of endurance, 
and a remarkable aptitude for the rapid dispatch of business, he 
had not until the last year shown any symptoms of exhaustion 
under his multitudinous labors. But of late his physicians have 
insisted that absolute rest was necessary to the preservation of 
his valuable life. 

From 1852 to 1860, as the junior bishop, his duties were per- 
haps no more arduous than those of his colleagues, though as a 
pulpit orator of rare eloquence and power, he was constantly 
called upon to preach or deliver addresses on subjects not con- 
nected strictly with his episcopal duties, and sometimes not with 
Methodism itself. 

But after the commencement of the war, how the man did 
work ! While neglecting none of his ofl&cial duties, he seemed 
the very embodiment of patriotism, and like a fire on the 
prairies, he set everything around him aflame with his zeal. He 
was an intimate friend and often the wise and judicious counsel- 
lor of President Lincoln ; from East to West he preached and 
lectured on the duty of the people to uphold our Government, 
and rendered more efficient aid than almost any other man to 
the Christian and Sanitary Commissions. His eloquence in 



MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 623 

pleading the cause of our country and its wounded heroes was 
unsurpassed, and after his appeals, so full of pathos, so touching 
in their simple beauty, his audiences with eyes streaming with 
tears, were ready to empty their purses into the colIecto;'s' plates, 
only lamenting that they were not larger and fuller. 

Other clergymen of all denominations labored zealously, and 
accom.plished great things for the country in its hour of extreme 
need ; but I think only one, or perhaps two others * equalled 
Bishop Simpson in the vast extent of their beneficent influence 
over the nation. Certainly no one surpassed him in this regard. 

Since the war, though overtasked with his episcopal duties 
from the unprecedented mortality among his colleagues, Bishop 
Simpson has not lost his interest in his country. Often, amid 
the utmost weariness and physical exhaustion, he has lifted up 
his voice in warning of national errors or in the encouragement 
of the nation's faith, and it is largely due to his powerful influ- 
ence that the great denomination of which he has been so earnest 
and faithful a leader has kept step so truly and uniformly to the 
music of the Union. 

"We can spare our politicians ; a hundred of them might die 

and our country and the world be none the worse ; but a stanch, 

earnest, true-hearted patriot like Bishop Simpson cannot be 

spared. May it please God long to preserve his life to benefit our 

^nation and the world. 

* Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and possibly Bishop Rosecrans (Roman 
Catholic) of Ohio. 



JAY COOKE, 

BANKER AND FINANCIER. 



fe6/f N the times tLat tried men s souls, the dark days of our 
^i . . ■^ 

Qi\\ revolutionary epoch, there was a time when there was 

^^f the greatest possible danger that the sufferings, the 
^ bloodshed, and the sacrifices of our patriotic heroes, 
might all fail of accomplishing our independence, from the 
want of the sinews of war, the means of paying the troops, of 
supplying rations, clothing, arms, and ammunition. At this 
crisis, when the treasury of the confederation was bankrupt, 
and there seemed no more room for hope, a Philadelphia 
banker, Robert Morris by name, came forward, and taking upon 
his own shoulders the financial burden of the nascent republic, 
obtained for it, by the pledge of his own credit and private re- 
sources, the aid it could not otherwise command. 

To this noble, self sacrificing patriot, as much perhaps as to 
any other man of the revolutionary period, not less even than 
to Washington himself, do we owe it, that we are not, to this 
day, dependencies of the British crown. 

In our second war of independence, so recently passed, a war 

which has had no parallel in ancient or modern times, in the 

extent of the forces brought into the field, or the vast scale of 

its expenditure, we had at one time drawn fearfully near the 

vortex of national bankruptcy. Our currency was greatly 
624 




!i.;RAVEDBy Samuel SARTAiM.Piiii. 



JAY COOKE. 625 

depreciated, the paper dollar being at one time worth, in tho 
market, but about thirtj-six cents in coin, and the prices of all 
goods of permanent value being inflated to such an extent as 
to alarm the cautious, and portend speedy ruin. Meantime the 
exigencies of the war demanded a constantly increasing force in 
the field, and the expenditure of the Government, mainly for 
the army and navy, was enlarging till it approached three mil- 
lions of dollars a day. 

At this juncture, when the ablest financial secretary who ever 
controlled the national treasury was almost in despair, another 
Philadelphia banker. Jay Cooke by name, brought to the aid 
of the Government his enterprise, financial skill and extensive 
credit, and undertook for a pittance which, if he had failed of 
complete success, would not have been sufficient to iiave saved 
him from utter ruin, to negotiate and sell a loan of five hundred' 
millions of dollars, an amount which would have staggered the 
Rothschilds. He not only accomplished this, but subsequently,, 
to meet the pressing wants of Government, sold eight hundred' 
and thirty millions more. More fortunate than Mr. Morris, in- 
that he did not, in the final result, lose his own fortune, but by 
the extraordinary enterprise he manifested, paved the way for' 
other and more profitable undertakings with private corpora- 
tions, Mr. Cooke yet manifested a spirit as truly patriotic as 
Mr. Morris, and like him, is entitled to the honor of rescuing' 
the nation from threatened bankruptcy. 

The Cooke family trace their lineage back to Francis Cooke,. 

one of the godly and goodly men who formed the company which' 

landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the Mayflower, in 1620, 

and who erected the third house built in Plymouth. Of his- 

descendants one branch emigrated to Connecticut, and another 

to northern New York. From the latter stock, some of the 

descendants of which are still living in Granville, Washington 
40 



026 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

county, New York, came the father of Jay Cooke, Eleutheroa 
Cooke, an eminent lawyer and political leader of northern Ohio, 

Eleutheros Cooke was born in Middle Granville, New York, 
received a collegiate education, studied law, and after practicing 
for a few years in Saratoga and its vicinity, removed, with 
a company of his neighbors, to the vicinity of Sandusky, 
Ohio, in 1817. Here he speedily attained distinction in his 
profession, ranking as the leading lawyer of that part of the 
State, and being the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of 
Ohio. An active and influential Whig, he was elected to 
numerous positions of trust and honor, was the representative 
of his district in the State Legislature for many years, and in 
1831 was elected to Congress. 

In his early candidacy for the State Legislature he found his 
name (Eleutheros) a great disadvantage ; the illiterate Germans 
of Seneca county could not comprehend, or write it correctly, 
and he was at one time defeated, by the throwing out by 
Democratic judges of a thousand ballots for defective spelling. 
lie determined thenceforward to give his children short and 
simple names. His eldest he called Pitt, after the great English 
minister; the second. Jay, after our illustrious chief justice, a 
third, Henry, and so on. 

Jay Cooke, the second son of this family, was born at Port- 
land (now Sandusky), Huron county, Ohio, August 10, 1821. 
His early education was obtained at home, for there were few 
good schools in that region at that early period. But though it 
was home teaching, it was none the less thorough on that 
account. Mr. Cooke was very anxious to have his children 
well educated. When at home, he instructed them himself, 
and when absent, his wife, a well educated lady, undertook the 
woik. In his more distant legal or political excursions, when- 
over he found a book store, he laid in a stock of books for the 



JAY COOKE. 627 

honscliold at home. The boys were all quick to learn, and 
made progress in their studies. During Mr. Eleufcheros Cooke's 
term in Congress, there was a very general time of financial 
pressure in the "West, and on his return home, he found his 
affairs considerably embarrassed, and became somewhat de- 
pressed. Standing in his door one day, and seeing his three 
boys coming home from school, (for there was at this time a 
school of some merit in Sandusky,) he went to meet them, and 
putting his arms around them, said, half sadly and half in jest, 
" My boys, I have nothing left for you ; you must go and look 
out for yourselves." The elder and the younger remained silent 
and downcast, but Jay, then about thirteen years of age, look- 
ing up in his father's face with great earnestness, said, " Father, 
I am old enough to work. I will go and earn for myself." 'Mr 
Cooke did not regard this remark as any thing more than an 
expression of the boy's affectionate and enterprising nature, and 
as he had no intention of turning either of his boys out, ai ihat 
time, to earn their own living, he thought no more of it. But 
the next day, when the other boys went to school, Jaj slipped 
away, and went to the store of a Mr. Hubbard, in Sandusky. 
and asked him to employ him as a clerk. Mr. Hubbard, who 
was doing a thriving business, happened to be just then in vvant 
of a clerk, having dismissed his only one a few days before, for 
dishonesty. Jay was a favorite of his, and admiring his artless 
ness and resolution, he forthwith employed him. 

That night, when Mrs. Cooke reproached the boy for playing 
tiuant, he replied, with a flush of noble independence, " Why, 
mother, I won't be a trouble to you any longer ; I am now 
earning for myself." 

The parents, after consultation, determined to let Jay work 
out his own destiny, and the next day, and every day thence- 
forward, the boy was at his place promptly, and proved so fiutb 



628 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

ful, intelligent and apt as a salesman, and was so ready and 
quick at figures, tliat his employer formed a strong attachment 
for him, taught him book-keeping, and instructed him in other 
branches which he had failed to acquire at school. 

After some time, Mr, Hubbard's partner left him for a long 
journey, and Mr. Hubbard himself fell sick, so that the whole 
oare of the store came upon Jay. He attended to it faithfully, 
and at evening took the keys and the day's receipts to his sick 
employer, with "whom he staid usually through the evenings. 
After he had been eleven months in Mr. Hubbard's employ, a 
Mr. Seymour who was about starting in business in St. Louis, 
prevailed on him to go with him to that city as clerk and book- 
keeper. The enterprise did not prove successful, and at the end 
of about nine months Seymour and Jay Cooke returned to 
Sandusky. While the latter remained at home for a time, 
awaiting a position, he attended an excellent school, in which 
he devoted his attention almost exclusively to algebra and the 
higher mathematics. In these he soon excelled. His only 
amusement was fishing, among the islands of Sandusky bay, 
a pastime which he still enjoys witn all a boy's enthusiasm. 
After a few months of close application, his brother-in-law, Mr. 
William G. Moorhead, then, as since, largely engaged in rail- 
road and canal enterprises, and residing in Philadelphia, visited 
Sandusky, his former home, and perceiving young Cooke's 
proficiency in mathematical and mercantile studies, offered him 
the position of book-keeper in his office. Jay accepted and 
spent a year in Philadelphia, when the firm was dissolved, and 
Mr. Moorhead received the appointment from the Government, 
of consul to Valparaiso. 

Jay returned to Sandusky and entered the school again, when 
his father received a letter from Mr. E. W. Clark, of E. W. Clark 
& Co., a leading banking firm of Philadelphia, asking permia* 



JAY COOKE. 629 

sion to take liis son, Jay, of whom the firm had had very 
favorable accounts, into their establishment and give him a 
thorough training as a banker. The father, after some hesita- 
tion, decided to send his son to Philadelphia, and this proved 
the turning point in his fortune. The house of E. W. Clark 
& Co., was one of high reputation for probity and honor, and 
had its branches in Boston, New York, New Orleans, St. Louis, 
and Burlington, Iowa. It was at that time, and for several 
years, the largest domestic exchange banking house in the 
United States. 

Though not quite seventeen years old when he entered this 
house, Jay Cooke soon impressed the partners so favorably by 
his earnest zeal to understand thoroughly the whole business 
of finance, and his careful attention to business, that he was, for 
some time before he became of age, entrusted with full powers 
of attorney to use the name of the firm. An act of kindness 
thoroughly characteristic of him, at this time, was, during the 
war, perverted into an occasion of slander and abuse. It was 
stated by some of the daily papers in New York and elsewhere 
that he was of low origin, an obscure western banker, and that 
while in Philadelphia he had been bar tender to a third rate 
tavern. There was hardly the faintest shadow of truth, to 
serve as the basis of those preposterous stories. lie was never 
a western banker in his life, but as we shall show presently 
had been for twenty-five years a member, and the real head of 
one of the largest banking houses in the country ; he was from 
an honored and distinguished family in northern Ohio, and his 
only connection with a hotel in Philadelphia consisted in the 
fact, that, during his first residence there, he boarded with an 
excellent family who owned a small hotel, and who were very 
kind to him during his stay. On his return he again took a 
room with this family, and fin'Jing that the worthy landlor(^ 



630 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

who was somewhat advanced in years and in feeble health, was 
in some financial difficulty, and had been obtaining heavy loans 
of Messrs E. W. Clark & Co., who had at last became apprehen- 
sive of his solvency, he persuaded the old man to let him 
examine into his condition. He found that he was nearly 
insolvent, and that he had been plundered by dishonest bar- 
tenders and book-keepers. He accordingly volunteered to 
make up his cash account for him every night, when he came 
from his office, and to do this was under the necessity of enter- 
ing his bar. He continued this kind service till the death of 
his old friend, and had the happiness of knowing that he had 
retrieved for him a part at least, of his fortune. For this he 
was sneered at, as a bar-keeper. 

At the age of twenty-one (in 1842), he became a partner in 
the house of E. W. Clark k Co., and remained in it until 1858, 
being for the greater part of that time its active business 
manager, and much of the time its real head. During this time 
Government had issued several loans, to which the firm had 
largely subscribed. In 1840, when but nineteen years of age, 
Mr. Cooke had written the first money article ever published 
in a Philadelphia paper, and for a year continued to edit the 
financial column of the Daily Chronicle, one of the three journals 
in the country, which then had a daily money article. On his 
retirement from the firm of E. W. Clark & Co., in 1858, Mr. 
Cooke had amassed a comfortable fortune, and had purposed 
to live thenceforth more at his ease. He still, however, nego- 
tiated large loans fot railroad and other corporations, and 
attended, in a quiet way, to other financial operations. 

At the commencement of 1861, Mr. Cooke formed a partner- 
ship with his brother-in-law, Mr. William G. Moorhead, in tlie 
banking business, under the firm name of Jay Cooke & Co. 
The object of both partners was to provide business openings 



JAY COOKE, C"l 

for tlieir sons. Mr. Moorliead brought to the firm a long and 
Buccessfal experience in railroad matters. In the spring of 
1861, when the Government sought to place its first loan, tho 
firm of Jay Cooke & Co., procured and forwarded to "Washing- 
ton, without compensation, a large list of subscribers. The 
State of Pennsylvania required a war loan of several millions, 
and it was negotiated mostly by Jay Cooke & Co., who suc- 
ceeded in placing it at par, though it was at a time of great 
commercial and financial depression. 

These successful negotiations attracted the attention of the 
Secretary of the Treasury to their ability as financiers. Soon 
afterward, having failed to obtain satisfactory aid from the 
associated banks, Mr. Chase resolved to try the experiment of a 
popular loan, and to this end, appointed four hundred special 
agents, mostly presidents or cashiers of prominent banking 
institutions throughout the country. In Philadelphia, Jay 
Cooke k Company were selected, and they immediately or- 
ganized a system which resulted in the popularization of the 
loan, and secured the co-operation of the masses in the sub- 
scription to it. Of the entire sum secured by the four hundred 
agents, not quite thirty millions in all, one third was returned 
by Jay Cooke & Company. As this did not fill the treasury, 
whose wants were constantly increasing, with sufficient rapidity, 
Mr, Chase, after consultation with eminent financiers, determined 
to place the negotiation of the five hundred millions of five- 
twenty bonds, just authorized by Congress, in the hands of a 
special agent, as Congress had given him. permission to do. Mr. 
Cooke's success in this small loan, led Mr. Chase to select him 
for the agent. He accepted the appointment, and organized 
his plans for the sale of the loan, with what success is now a 
matter of history. 

A bolder and more daring financial undertaking than this ia 



632 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

not to be found in the records of monetary history. The risks 
were frightful, the compensation, if no sales were made, nothing; 
if they were effected, five eighths of one per cent, on the 
amount sold, which was to cover all commissions to sub-agents, 
advertising, correspondence, postage, clerk hire, express fees, 
and remuneration for labor and superintendence. The Gov- 
ernment assumed no risks, and if the loan failed to take with 
the people, the advertising and other expenses alone would 
swallow up the entire fortune of Mr. Cooke and his partners. 
The commissions received by European bankers for negotiating 
such a loan, themselves assuming no risks, are from four to 
eight per cent., and there was not another banking house in the 
United States which would have taken it on the terms accepted 
by Mr. Cooke ; but his country was engaged in a deadly strife 
for the preservation of its liberties; it needed money in vast 
sums to conduct this gigantic struggle successfully, and if it did 
not have it promptly, the great sacrifices made already, would 
prove in vain. Some one, possessing an ample fortune, must 
have patriotism enough to take the risk, great as it was, and if 
it must be so, ruin himself in the effort to save his country. In 
the secretary's tendering him this position, first and unhesitat- 
ingly, there seemed to be a call of Divine Providence on him to 
undertake this great responsibility. He accepted it as a Chris- 
tian and a patriot, and it is no more than the truth to say, that 
in the history of the war, no enterprise was undertaken from a 
higher motive, or from a loftier sense of duty and patriotism. 

His labors, during this sale of bonds, were incessant; "he 
was," sa3'S a banker, a friend of his, " the hardest worked man 
in America." Public opinion, in favor of the loan, Avas to be 
created and stimulated ; the loan itself was to be made accessible 
to all classes, and all were to be shown that it was for their 
interest and benefit to invest all their surplus, be it little or 



JAY COOKE. 63S 

much, in these bonds of the nation ; every village must have 
its agent, so that all parties, the sempstress, the domestic;, the 
young journeyman, or the farmer's boy, who had but fifty 
dollars of their earnings to invest, the fruit of long savings and 
painful toil, might be as well and as promptly accommodated 
as the rich capitalist who wished to purchase his hundreds of 
thousands. Every loyal paper in the nation had its advertise- 
ments, and every vehicle of information by which the masses 
could be reached its carefully written articles explaining and 
commending the bonds. Over half a million of dollars were 
expended in this machinery, before the receipts began to come 
in. Mr. Cooke's partners were getting a little anxious, but his 
countenance was still sunny, and his faith in the loyalty of the 
nation, firm as a rock. Then, after awhile, the orders began to 
come ; first, like the few drops that betoken the coming storm, 
then faster and thicker, patter, patter, patter; then an over- 
whelming flood, that kept all hands busy till midnight, day 
after day. So great was the rush for the bonds toward the last, 
that when Mr. Cooke gave notice that no more could be sold 
after a certain day and hour, and that the five hundred millions 
were already taken, the orders and money poured in, till he 
was obliged to issue, and Congress to legalize, fourteen millions 
beyond the amount first authorized. 

It was a grand, a glorious success, and at once put Mr. Cooke 
in the first rank among the great financiers of the world ; but 
the immediate pecuniary profit from it was very small. As we 
have said, the commission to cover all expenditures was but five- 
eighths of one per cent., and from this were paid the advertising, 
review articles, clerk hire, postage, and express fees, and one 
fourth of one per cent, commission to sub-agents. But this 
was not all the deductions which were to be made on this gross 
commission The nation has never had an abler, nor a more 



63-i MEN OF OUR DAY. 

really economical Secretary of the Treasury, thaii Mr. Chase. 
He was so careful, so scrupulous, in regard to the expenditures 
of his department, that even in these great enterprises, his 
economy almost approached to penuriousness. Though the 
sales of the five-twenty bonds were solely due to the almost 
superhuman efforts of Jay Cooke and the corps of agents whom 
he had trained, and he was entitled, therefore, to a commission 
on the entire amount, under the ordinary customs of financial 
transactions, a portion of the sub-agents had applied directly to 
the treasury department for their bonds, and Mr, Chase refused 
to pay him a commission on any of these, so that he actually 
received his commission only on three hundred and sixty- three 
millions. A selfish and mercenary man would have insisted on 
his right to the entire commission, and might very possibly 
have secured it, but it was from no selfish or mercenary motive 
that Mr. Cooke had entered upon this work, and he allowed the 
economical secretary, whose ability, integrity, and patriotism 
he never questioned, to settle the matter as he believed to be 
most for the interest of the nation. 

Mr. Chase believed that the popularization of this loan had 
so enamored the people with Government bonds, that he 
should find no difficulty in floating a five per cent, ten-forty 
loan, without the aid of the Philadelphia banking agency. He 
tried it, but the public mind was not prepared for it, and he 
projected a large issue of seven-thirty three year bonds, the 
interest payable in currency, and the bonds convertible at 
maturity into five-twenty six per cent, bonds, the interest pay. 
able in coin. 

Meanwhile the price of gold was constantly increasing, or 
rather the gold value of the currency was rapidly decreasing. 
The national banking system which he had inaugurated, and in 
which Mr, Cooke had rendered him most essential aid, was as 



JAY COOKE. 635 

yet an experiment, and for the want of some additional pro- 
visions, subsequently made by Congress, the State banks and 
many of the large public and private bankers of the great cities 
were fighting the national banks with great ferocity. This 
system was destined ere long to become a magnificent success, 
and to displace all the State organizations with a rapidity which 
reminded the observer of the transformation of the genii of 
Persian story ; but for the present affairs looked gloomy. 

The great fighting was going on from the Eapidan to the 
James (for it was the early part of the great battle summer ot 
1864), and every department of the Government was calling for 
more men and more money, and as yet no great victories had 
presaged the coming overthrow of the rebellion. Sick at heart, 
worn down with excessive labor, and feeling that his great 
efforts had not been fully appreciated, Mr. Chase suddenly re- 
signed, in June, 186-i, and Mr. Fessenden, an able financier, 
though of less sunny -temper, succeeded him. 

The rapid depreciation of the currency which ensued on the 
announcement of this change, is one of the cardinal points in the 
memory of the bulls and bears of our generation. In fifteen 
days, gold rose from 88 per cent, premium to 185 per cent., and 
there was a fierce outcry against the Governmeni, for all men 
feared impending bankruptcy. 

In this emergency, Mr. Fessenden applied to Jay Cooke, 
whose abilities he well knew, to put his strong shoulder again 
to the wheel, and lift the Government out of the slough of 
despond, in which it was fast settling. The appeal was not in 
vain. Again the army of sub-agents was organized ; again the 
loyal papers of every state teemed with advertisements, this 
time of seven-thirty bonds; again the pens of ready writers 
were in demand to write up the advantages of Government 
securities, and Mr. Cooke himself essayed the defence of the 



636 MEN OP OUR DAT. 

financial paradox, "a national Debt, a national Blessing." 
Again were the mails burdened with orders, and men and 
woman, old and young, of all stations in life, hastened to secure 
the Government's promises to pay. Mr. Cooke and the houses 
with which he was in correspondence, had, meantime, opened 
the way for large transactions, at rapidly increasing prices, in 
our bonds, in Europe ; had diffused information, especially in 
Germany, Switzerland, and Holland in regard to them, till, early 
in 1865, nearly two hundred millions of United States Govern- 
ment bonds had been placed in Europe. This amount was subse- 
quently still farther increased to between four and five hundred 
millions, and those bonds are to-day as regularly called at the 
boards of London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfort, and Berlin, as 
at those of our American cities. 

The success of the three series of seven-thirty loans, was as 
great as that of the five-twenties had been ; greater if we take 
into account the larger amount, the already great indebtedness 
of the Government, and the depressing circumstances under 
which they were first put upon the market. In less than a 
year eight hundred and thirty millions of these bonds were sold. 
During this period, a part of the time, the Government expendi- 
ture exceeded three millions of dollars a day, but soon, under 
the heavy blows of great armies well fed and clothed, and abun- 
dantly supplied with money and all the munitions of war, one 
stronghold o!' the enemy after another fell into our hands, vic- 
tory resounded from one end of the country to the other, and 
the great rebellion was crushed. 

After the war, the house of Jay Cooke & Co., which still had 
its branches in Washington and New York, confined itself to 
the negotiation of loans for great corporate enterprises, dealing 
in Government securities, etc., etc., and still, in the vastness of 
its enterprises, the integrity and honor of its dealings, and the 



JAY COOKE. 637 

consummate financial ability which has marked all its operations, 
retains and is ever increasing its past prestige. 

On the 1st of January, 1871, Mr. Cooke established a branch 
of his banking house in London, under the firm name of Jay 
Cooke, McCulloch & Co., the resident head of the London 
house being Hon. Hugh McCulloch, the late able and trusted 
Secretary of the United States Treasury. The new American 
Banking house in London at once took rank beside the leading 
financial institutions of the Old World, such as the Barings 
and the Rothschilds. During the first year of its existence, 
and in co-operation with the American branches of the house, 
it achieved a success in connection with United States Govern- 
ment finances which gave the house wide and deserved prestige, 
and brilliantly proved that the genius which enabled Mr. Cooke 
to accomplish such vast results in the troubled times of war, is 
also equal to the greatest and most difficult monetary negotia- 
tions in time of peace. 

Congress having authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to 
fund a large part of the public debt at lower rates of interest; 
in other words, to sell at par in coin new bonds bearing five and 
four and a half per cent, interest, and with the proceeds redeem 
an equal amount of outstanding six per cent, bonds, the 
Treasury Department attempted the negotiation of $200,000,000 
new five per cents. After six months of active effort both in 
America and Europe, and after exhausting all expedients, the 
Government had been able to sell only some $60,000,000, which 
amount was almost wholly taken by the National Banks of the 
United States. Secretary Boutwell then placed the agency for 
the sale of the new loan in the hands of Jay Cooke & Co., and 
Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co. The latter, having associated 
with themselves several leading houses in London and New 
York, promptly brought out the loan on the markets of Great 



638 MEN" OF OUR DAY. 

IVitain and the Continent of Europe, and within twelve days of 
tiie first offering the remainder of the $200,000,000 was all sub- 
scribed and the loan closed. 

The brilliant success was as much a surprise to financial cir- 
cles in Europe as it was a gratification to the United States 
Government. In opposition to the prevalent views of theoretical 
financiers in America, it practically proved that the entire pub- 
lic debt could be funded at such low rates of interest as to save 
our people a yearly expenditure of twenty to thirty million 
dollars. 

Soon after the successful closing of the $200,000,000 loan, 
the house of Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co., and that of L. M. 
Rothschild & Sons of London, made a joint proposal to the 
United States Government, looking to the negotiation of a fur- 
ther amount of $600,000,000 of the new bonds, on terms similar 
to tho^e attending the former. This proposition, coming from 
two such eminent houses, and covering the largest single nego- 
tiation known to modern finance, was favorably received by the 
Government, but diplomatic complications between the United 
States and Great Britain, growing out of the Alabama claims 
and the Treaty of Washington, temporarily postponed the final 
consideration of the matter. 

In addition to the above-named negotiations, and the general 
supervision of the regular and ordinary business of the several 
branches of his house, Mr. Cooke has since 1870 made something 
of a specialty of the finances of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
After thorough and conscientious investigation his firm accepted 
the fiscal agency of this great corporation, and undertook the 
sale of its construction bonds. 

Under his careful and energetic financial management, this 
greatest commercial enterprise of the age is moving forward to 
assured success. The building of this second highway to the 



JAY COOKE. 639 

Pacific is the leading agency in the settlement, development and 
tiivilization of the Northwestern part of the continent. 

Mr. Cooke still works hard, but he enjoys life, and whether 
at his city residence, or in that magnificent palace which Iuh 
princely fortune has enabled him to rear in the vicinity of Phila- 
delphia, or, in the summer months, at that beautiful country- 
seat on Gibraltar island in Lake Erie, where, as in boyhood, he 
enjoys trolling for the scaly denizens of the lake, he is the satne 
sunny-faced, genial, who^.e-hearted man, as when years ago he 
managed the affairs of E. W. Clark & Co. With all his hard 
work and great enterprises, the spirit of the boy has not died 
(Tut of him. Mr. Cooke's liberality is as princely as his fortune. 
Throughout the war, he was lavish in his gifts to the Sanitary 
Commission, to the hospitals, to sick and wounded soldiers, to 
the Christian Commission, and to all good enterprises. Since 
the war, the recording angel alone can tell how many of our 
crippled veterans he has helped to attain a competency, how 
many soldiers, widows, and orphans he has aided and blessed, 
how many homes, made desolate by the war, he has cheered 
and brightened. To Kenyon college, Ohio, he has given 
twenty-five thousand dollars, and to a theological seminary of 
his own church (the Protestant Episcopal) a still larger sum. 
In the vicinity of his home on Chelton Hills, near Philadelphia, 
he has built several country churches. 

^ -"6 of the beautiful islands of Lake Erie, near Sandusky, 
he has erected a charming country-seat, and has built a nea' 
chapel for the residents of the island. Here he spends his sum- 
mer resting time, and plays as hard as he works the rest of the year. 
But he is not content to take his play-spell alone, and for some 
weeks before his annual visit there, his leisure moments are em- 
ployed in sending missives, usually with check enclosed, to hard 



G-iO MEN OF OUR DAY, 

worked country clergymen, inviting them to spend their sum- 
mer vacation with him on the island. Many a country parson, 
in a poor parish, with a scattered and illiterate population, when 
just ready to yield to discouragement, has found his heart 
cheered, his faith strengthened, and his capacity for efficient 
labor greatly increased, by a visit to the hospitable home of the 
Philadelphia banker. 

Wealth hoarded with miserly greed, withheld from all good 
and wise charities, or bestowed only on the gratification of 
pride, appetite, or lust, is a curse ; but wealth held in recognition 
of man's stewardship to the God who has given it, and scattered 
so wisely as to comfort and cheer the unfortunate, the helpless, 
and the n^edy, and to rear the institutions of religion, is a bless- 
ing for wi ich the world has cause to be grateful. 



ALEXANDER TURNEY STEWART. 



oC\f4 BOUT 1825, an alert, sanguine, and active young man 
^i*^ commenced the dry goods business in Broadway, nearly 
opposite his present wholesale warehouse, with a capi- 
tal of about three thousand dollars. In the three years 
1865-'6-'7, this gentleman sold two hundred and three million 
dollars worth of goods. It is hardly necessary to say that the 
young man was Alexander Turney Stewart, whose income for 
1864 was the largest of any merchant in the world. 

Carefully reared by a pious grandfather in Belfast, Ireland, 
Mr. Stewart received an excellent classical education in Trinity 
College, Dublin. His grandfather was very desirous that he 
should become a clergyman, but his death occurring before the 
grandson had completed his college course, a Quaker friend was 
appointed his guardian, and at his earnest solicitation procured 
for him letters of introduction to leading merchants of the 
Society of Friends in New York. 

On reaching New York, Mr. Stewart looked around for a 
career. He taught the classics, in which his careful study had 
made him singularly proficient, not with a view of making it a 
profession, but to oblige a friend. At length he formed a part- 
nership with a gentleman, who was to furnish a portion of the 
means and all the experience for a mercantile career. For some 
reason or other, this party abandoned the enterprise. Mr. 
Stewart, not daunted, went back at once to Ireland, converted 

the small fortune he had inherited into money, invested it all in 
41 641 



642 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

goods, principally Belfast laces, returned to New York, and 
opened a store, in 1825, at 262 Broadway. Almost in the first 
week of his mercantile career, he had the good or ill fortune to 
be discharged by one of his salesmen. The occasion was as 
follows : — 

One day an old lady came in and accosting the young man 
alluded to, asked to see some calicoes. 

She seemed satisfied with the style, but asked, with prudent 
caution — • 

"Will this wash?" 

" Oh ! yes, ma'am." 

" Then I'll take a little piece and try it, and if the colors are 
fast, I'll get some of it." 

""What's the use of taking all that trouble," said the clerk. 
" I have tried it, and I know it holds its color." 

The old lady felt assured and took a dress. Ladies did wear 
calicoes, then. Mr, Stewart was an interested auditor during 
this discourse. When the lady departed, he stepped up and 
said : 

"■ But, Mr. , why did you tell that old lady such an untruth 

about that calico ?" 

" Oh I that's all in the way of business," said the salesman, 

"But," said Mr, Stewart, "that doesn't seem a good way of 
business. That lady will try the calico; it will fade — she will 
come and accuse us of misrepresentation and demand hei 
money back, and she will be right." 

"Oh! then I'll say, 'you are quite mistaken, ma'am; you 
never got the goods here ; you must have got them at the store 
above.' " 

" Well then, if that's the case," said the master of the business, 
' don't let it occur again. I don't want goods represented fof 
what they are not. If the colors are not fast, it is easy to ex- 



ALEXANDER TURNEY STEWART. 643 

plain to them that certain colors are not fast, and cannot bo 
mad(( so for the price at which they are sold, and they will buy 
as soon, knowing the truth, as any other way." 

" Look here, Mr. Stewart," said the salesman, " if those are 
going to be your principles in trade, I'm going to look for 
another situation. You won't last very long !" 

And he was as good as his word. It appears, however, that 
Mr. Stewart's ideas of business were tolerably successful, for to- 
day he wields a capital of many millions. Apart from this rigor- 
ous devotion to principle in his business, Mr. Stewart owes much 
of his success to great delicacy of touch and \aste, and judgment 
in colors and textures, almost feminine in sensibility; add to 
these qualities a masculine grasp of events and an instantaneous 
perception of those shadows which are cast by events, and you 
have all the elements of the great merchant. Mr. Stewart early 
began to survey the political field, and when he forsaw a 
storm ahead, there would be a silent purchase of all of certain 
goods in the market, which would be sure to rise in a certain 
contingency. At other times he was the first to foresee a fall- 
ing market and to put his goods before the public with such 
swiftness and address that he cleared his shelves with the least 
loss — while his slower friends were carried under the current 
of thirty-seven, forty-seven, fifty-seven, or sixty-seven, as the 
case might be. (Our merchants are superstitious about the 
* sevens," and many think to-day that any year, with a seven in 
it, brings misfortune to the trade.) There was a time during 
the war when Mr. Stewart held more cotton goods than all the 
other dry goods firms put together. There was also a time 
when he was the first to sell at the reduced price. Mr. Stewart 
has a memory for his business as remarkable as that of others 
for languages and figures. He can tell to-day the ruling prices 
of staple goods for every year of the last forty. 



644 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Another peculiarity. The house of A. T. Stewart k Co. 
has always bought for cash — and one more and striking peculi- 
arity, full of its lesson to American merchants — he has never 
speculated one penny's worth outside of his business, nor, 
strictly speaking, in it. "When he has bought largely, it was 
to supply his customers with a greatly needed article — and 
when he reduced prices, it was not to injure others, but a ready 
submission to the inevitable in trade. His advantage consisted 
in knowing early what was inevitable. In connection with 
this, let us remark here, that reading this, one might suppose 
Mr. Stewart to be little more than a dealer in dry goods. There 
could be no greater mistake. He is a liberally educated gentle- 
man, as we said before. Like all leaders, business is easy to 
him and does not absorb his whole soul. There are few men in 
our country better qualified to derive enjoyment from Horace 
and Tacitus, than Mr. Stewart. He is the hope and refuge of 
artists — for he is an admirer and enjoyer of good works of art, 
and if he does not buy all that appears meritorious, it is only 
because the marble mansion in Fifth Avenue, and the brown 
stone opposite, will hold no more. 

There is in some circles an impression, studiously cultivated 
by a few, that Mr. Stewart squeezes out small dealers mercilessly 
— lest they grow too great for him. It is entirely unfounded. 
He conducts his business on business principles, and no business 
can last long, or become great, that is conducted otherwise. 
That Mr. Stewart regrets the inevitable injury to small dealers^ 
which his large operations cause, we have ample evidence. He 
said recently to a gentleman, who was making some inquiries : 

"They'll have me in the concert saloon business next." 
Laughing again, probably at the curious figure he would cut in 
that avocation, " The truth is, I intend only to enlarge the 
facilities for retail trade at the upper store, and group together 



ALEXANDER TURNEY STEWART. '645 

those departments which should be properly associated, and 
which are now scattered on two floors, and cause a great deal 
of running up and down stairs. Here is the Yankee notion 
stock ; we have no room for it here, and it ought to be moved 
Tip to the other store. I am urged to do this constantly, but 
hesitate only for one reason. The moment we throw open that 
department to the retail trade, a great many smaller dealers ia 
the vicinity will suffer. The advantages we possess are so 
superior that competition of small dealers is out of the ques- 
tion, and the moment they feel the pressure they cry out against 
monopoly, and attribute all kinds of vindictiveness to the firm. 
But, after all, the public at large are benefitted. We are 
enabled to offer them the largest stock at the smallest cost, with 
all the guarantees that are inseparable from a responsible house, 
whose name and honor are part of the business. This seems to 
be the great advantage of the tendency to aggregate business 
interests of a kindred nature. It cheapens manufacture, and 
capital becomes a vehicle between the petty producer and the 
Consumer. Aside from the fact that the system economizes power, 
it should be remembered that it is better calculated to foster 
native industry in many cases. Take, for instance, the Ameri- 
can beaver cloths, made for this house expressly by ihe Utica 
Steam Mills. They are now conceded to be equal to any made 
anywhere, and lying side by side with imported goods, suffer no 
depreciiition. They are perfecting the manufacture so rapidly 
in cassi meres and similar goods, under proper stimulation, that 
already the demand for American manufacture exceeds the 
foreign. It is absurd to suppose, as is generally the case, that 
the increasing facilities and demands of a great business in New 
York, or anywhere, in fact, must be associated with rivalry or 
greed; generally thj magnitude of the business swallows up all 
■uch eonsidtsratiofts ; in fact the growth and extension are not 



646 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

Che subject of special endeavor, but are the inevitable conse- 
quence of a healthy organization. Any business beyond a 
certain point becomes germinal, and grows in all directions. 
The greatest care has to be exercised in its training and prun- 
ing. People come to me and ask me for my secret of success ; 
why, I have no secret, I tell them. My business has been a 
matter of principle from the start. That's all there is about it. 
If the golden rule can be incorporated into purely mercantile 
affairs it has been done in this establishment, and you must 
have noticed, if you have observed closely, that the customers 
are treated precisely as the seller himself would like to be 
treated were he in their place. That is to say, nothing is 
misrepresented, the price is fixed, once and for all, at the lowest 
possible figure, and the circumstances of the buyer are not 
suffered to influence the salesman in his conduct in the smallest 
particular. I think you will find the same principle of justice 
throughout the larger transactions of the house, and especially 
in its dealings with employees. I do not speak of it as deserv- 
ing of praise — we find it absolutely necessary. What we cannot 
afford is violation of principle." 

Here Mr. Stewart has given his whole theory of business. 
To another gentleman, who said to him one morning — " Mr. 
Stewart, you are a very rich man, why do you bother yourself 
building this immense place?" 

Said Mr. Stewart : " That is the very question I asked myself 
this morning, when I took a look at that big hole in the ground. 
The worst of it is," he continued, without giving a complete 
reply, and with a regretful tone, as if the thing must be done, 
and yet cause him sorrow, " my neighbors don't like it." 

The stories of Mr. Stewart's competition with other houses, 
large or small, are all mythical. There is room enough for all, 
ID his opinion, and we may say, that in our opinion, when an* 



ALEXANDER TURNKY STEWART. 6-47 

otber man comes along with the qualifications of a Slew art, he 
will acquire the fortune of a Stewart. 

" The star of jour fate is in your own breast," says the Ger- 
man poet. 

Mr. Stewart is, of course, the recipient of a vast number of 
applications for every kind and form of charity. To deserving 
objects, his liberality is large and enduring — but he fights the 
many swindles and dribbles that eat away weaker men's for- 
tunes without helping the receiver, with a keenness and warmth 
that is acquainted with the tricks and manners of the begging 
tribe. Many old merchants of New York, who have failed in 
business, have had their declining years made easy by the kind- 
ness of Mr. Stewart, but he is as reticent of these deeds as he is 
of every thing that tends to personal praise. The large way in 
which he prefers to do things, is evidenced in his conduct during 
the last season of great distress in Ireland, during our war, when 
he bought a ship, loaded her with stores, shipped them to Bel- 
fast, his native town, and brought over in return, a ship load of 
young men and women, free of cost, to the land of hope — ■ 
America, and at the same time repaying to Belfast, with interest, 
the capital he had brought from thence at the commencement of 
his career. To the relief of the Lancashire operatives in 1863, 
he contributed $10,000, and to the sufferers from the Chicago 
fire $50,000, and subsequently $50,000 more. 

As to. his views on politics, Mr. Stewart has attempted, as far 
as he has been active at all, to get public affairs out of the 
hands of professional politicians, into those of men who will do 
the public business on the same principles upon which private 
business is done. This will be the case some day, but Mr. 
Stewart will not live to see it. lie was the strong and active 
friend of General Grant as a candidate for the Presidency, and 
was one of the large contributors to the present of one hundred 



618 MEJf OF OUR DAY. 

thousand dollars, made him by the merchants of New York city, 
as an acknowledgment of his great services in the overthrow of 
the Rebellion. After General Grant's inauguration he was 
nominated Secretary of the Treasury ; but being a large importer 
he could not legally hold the office, and his name was withdrawn 
and Mr. Boutwell's substituted for it. 

Mr, Stewart is a man of progress— of the modern time — he 
is a man for improvement and enjoyment. When he builds, 
he does it with iron, and plenty of glass — fire proof — with abun^ 
dant light — the structure perfectly adapted to all its purposes, 
and securing the comfort of all within — no gothic dimness, or 
Grecian anachronism in architecture, has a chance with him. 
When he builds a house for another — as his marble palace in 
Fifth Avenue — to use his own words, "a little attention to Mrs. 
Stewart" — it is a different matter. That is to please her. 

Mr. Stewart is about sixty-nine years of age, but look^ good 
for twenty more. His eyes twinkle, as blue eyes often ao, with 
the coming light of a frequent good thing. He has a merry 
turn of mind, and enjoys himself in a little party with young 
folks, equal to any of his juniors, and can make fun, and take 
fun, equal to any. 

The operations of the ho\ise of A. T. Stewart & Co., are liter- 
ally world wide. Mr. William Libby, in New York, Mr. 
Francis Warden, permanently in Paris, and Mr. G. Fox, in 
Manchester, England, compose the firm. It has three foreign 
bureaus, or depots — one on a triangular square at Cooper street, 
Manchester, where are collected, examined, and packed, all 
English goods. One at Belfast, for linens, which partakes of 
the nature of a factory as well, the linens being bought in the 
rough, and afterward bleached and fitted for the trade. This 
establishment is about the size of a double New York store, 
that is fifty by one hundred feet. In Glasgow, the firm have a 



ALEXAWDKR TURNET STEWART. 649 

house exclusively for Scotch goods. In Pans, the magazin, on 
the Rue Bergere, has been known to continental manufacturers 
for many years. Here are collected and arranged, for shipping 
to America, all East Indian, French and German goods, exclu- 
sive of woolens. In Berlin is the woolen-house, equal in size 
to three ordinary New York stores. There are also, at Lyons, 
two large warehrvuses for silk goods. All the continental buai* 
ness is transacted at the Paris bureau, payments are made there, 
and a general supervision extended over the other establish- 
ments. In addition to these, it must be remembered that there 
are a number of manufacturers who do work exclusively for 
this firm, and are really branches of the business. For instance, 
they have the house of Alexandre, in Paris, constantly manu- 
facturing kill gloves for Stewart & Co., exclusively, while in 
this country and Great Britain, mills run all the year round to 
supply the New York house with goods. One such customer 
taxes all their powers. 

Then there are buyers, one for each of the fifteen departments 
in this house, who are constantly travelling somewhere between 
Hong Kong and Chili, and who are in a measure responsible 
for the condition of those departments at home. Special 
agents, too, on important embassies of a confidential nature, 
putting up in Thibet, or Brussels, or found on the Ganges, or 
among the Chinese cocoons. In fact, the cosmopolitan part of 
the house, the circulating human capital, must be formidable in 
numbers and diplomacy if ever assembled. And they were as- 
sembled once, we believe, at Manchester. A rumor had got 
abroad in Europe, that Mr. Stewart had died. To correct it, and 
accomplish some important movement, Mr. Stewart telegraphed 
'extensively over the hemisphere for his ministers to meet him 
in Manchester, on a certain day, and there is a legend in that 
place of a mysterious congress having been held there, though 



650 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

public opinion was for a long time divided as to whether they 
were Orsini sympathizers, or Yankee invaders. 

In 1863, Mr. Stewart returned an income of $1,900,000— 
in 1864, one of $4,000,000, in 1865, of $1,600,000, and for 1866, 
of $600,000— an average of very near $2,000,000 per year. 
Whether this rate of profit can be kept up is a question, but it 
•s probable that the average will be increased instead of di 
minished. Mr. S^tewart is a large holder of real estate, owning 
three or four of the largest hotels in New York, besides nume- 
rous stores and dwellings, and unimproved lands. He has also 
within the past three or four years purchased a very large tract 
of land known as the Hempstead Plains, on Long Island, ten oi 
twelve miles from New York, where he is building a large city, 
and to which he has completed a railroad from the metropolis. 

Among his other benevolent enterprises is one now fast ap- 
proaching completion, of a hotel for workingwomen, where 
all the comforts, conveniences, and appliances of the best hotels 
are to be furnished to workingwomen, under such arrangements 
that pleasant, airy, and commodious rooms, well furnished, and 
excellent board can be had by those women for from $2.75 to 
$3.00 per week. He has projected a similar establishment for 
young men, and has also in view a large number of model tene- 
ment houses much after the plan of Mr. Peabody's in London. 
It is a grand example which this greatest of merchant princes is 
setting to the world, that of devoting the greater part of his 
colossal fortune to ameliorate the condition of the lowly. "Would 
that more of our rich men had the same spirit. 



ABIEL ABBOT LOW, 

PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 



1^ E ACE, said Mr, Sumner, in one of his most classic and 
Y '[\\ eloquent orations, " hath its victories no less than war." 
cj^ 1*2 The merchant prince, whose enterprise has included with- 
al in its grasp the traffic of the far distant lands of the orient, 
whose ships are on every sea, and who brings to his bursting 
warehouses, the products of all climes, has really achieved as 
great a triumph, and one far more beneficial and bloodless, 
than the warrior who has led his conquering legions over 
desolated homes, and amid the ruins of sacked cities. And if 
this peaceful hero uses his wealth as wisely as he has acquired 
it, and by his large beneficence makes thousands and tens of 
thousands happy, then is his victory greater than that of any 
leader of a marshalled host, whose garments are stained with 
blood, for his triumphs are over the forces of nature, and the 
selfish and unhallowed passions of men, and " greater is he that 
ruleth his own spirit, than he that taketh a city," 

Among these heroes in the bloodless strife, Mr, Low is 
entitled to a high place of honor. During a long commercial 
life of wonderful success, and filled with great enterprises, he 
has ever maintained an enviable reputation for the highest 
honor and principle, and no unworthy deed or word has ever 
linked itself with his name. More than this, in all great mea- 
sures of benevolence, whether for aiding the poor of New 

65i 



652 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

York or Brooklyn, sustaining the government in putting down 
tlie rebellion, providing bounties for tlie soldiers, and supplies 
for the regiments, or succoring the families of our bravo 
defenders, sending aid to the famishing sufferers of Lancashire, 
sustaining the Sanitary Commission in its noble work, manifest 
ing the grateful emotions of the commercial class toward the 
leaders of our army and navy, establishing and endowing 
libraries and scientific institutions, or in the more direct pro- 
motion of the interests of religion. Mr. Low's contributions 
have always been among the most liberal. Other citizens of 
New York possess larger wealth than he, but none have made 
a more admirable and beneficial use of it. 

Abiel Abbot Low was born in Salem, Massachusetts, we 
believe, in 1796. His father, the late Seth Low, was himself 
an eminent merchant, and soon after Abiel had reached his 
majority, removed to New York, and made Brooklyn his place 
of residence. The house of Seth Low and Company, (after- 
wards Seth Low and Sons,) had, both in Salem and New York, 
been largely engaged in the China and East India trade, and it 
was not, therefore, surprising that Mr. Low should have desired 
to visit China, and acquire a knowledge of the business there, in 
which so many fortunes had been made. His excellent early 
business training, and the remarkable capacity for great enter- 
prises, which he had early manifested, rendered him peculiarly 
adapted to attain success in this position. Soon after his arrival 
iu China, he received the offer of a partnership in the well- 
known house of Russell and Company, of Canton, and accepted 
it in 1833. His connection with this house continued till 1841, 
and sometime before that date, he had come to be its head. He 
returned to the United States in 1841, and established with his 
two brotbers the great China house of A. A. Low and Brothers, 
retaining their correspondents in China. Under his wise and 



ABTEL ABBOT LOW. 653^ 

able management, this lias been for several years past tbe 
leading American house in the China trade. Its traffic in all 
descriptions of Chinese goods is enormous. Ships freighted 
with the teas, silks, crapes, nankeens, lacquered wares, ginger, 
porcelain, rice, and mattings of the flowery kingdom, are con- 
stantly arriving in New York, and others^departing laden with 
such goods as the Chinese require in their trade. Of late years 
this trade is not, to the extent it was formerly, the payment of 
silver on our part, and the delivery of their goods in exchange 
for that alone. Cotton goods, clocks, ginseng, and a yearly 
increasing list of our manufactured goods are taken by the 
Celestials in exchange for their products. 

Within a few years past, the Messrs. Low have turned their 
attention also to the Japan trade, and in the beginning of 1867, 
Mr. Low having visited San Francisco, sailed thence to Hong 
Kong and Yokohama, in the first steamship of the China mail 
line, and after establishing a branch house at the latter point, 
returned by the overland route to Europe, and thence home. 

During the war, few men in this country were as liberal, as 
patriotic, as judicious in their benefactions, and as wise in their 
counsels as Mr. Low. He lost heavily through the piratical 
conduct of the Confederate cruisers, several of his richly laden 
ships being seized, plundered and burned by those ocean 
marauders, Semmes and Maffit ; but amid all these losses, he was 
ever ready to aid the Government in every emergency, and to 
respond promptly to all its demands for counsel and encourage- 
ment. In that noble oJBfering of aid by our merchants to the 
famine stricken operatives of Lancashire, Mr. Low not only 
contributed largely, but acted as treasurer of the committee, 
and at no small personal inconvenience, kept its accounts, made 
its purchases, and transmitted its statements to the committee 
m England 



654 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

The New York Chamber of Commerce, the most eminent 
body of American merchants on this continent, have twice 
called Mr. Low, the last time by acclamation, to preside over 
their deliberations for the year, and would have continued him 
in that high position for a succesj^.on of years, but for his 
absence from the CQijntry in 1867. This honor, so freely ac- 
corded, shows the estimation in which he is held by those who 
know him best for sound judgment, remarkable foresight, in- 
corruptible principle, and the highest executive ability. His 
action, and his words of cheer in the dark hours of our national 
history, and the critical condition of commercial affairs, and 
his skill in the management of the grave and often delicate 
and dif&cult topics which came up for discussion before tho 
chamber during this eventful period of its history, fully 
justified the confidence which was reposed in him. 

In all matters appertaining to the encouragement of art, 
literature, and higher education, as well as in all the charitable 
institutions of the cit_y^ State, and nation, Mr. Low's aid is con- 
stantly sought, and never in vain in a worthy caurfe. The 
institutions of religion find in him a zealous and consistent 
supporter. In private life, that true manliness of deportment, 
that scorn of every thing base and mean, and that genial and 
kindly nature, which have always characterized him in public, 
find still more adequate and complete expression, and m tho 
bosom of his family, he ever finds his highest happiness. 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 




HE name of Cornelius Vanderbilt is inseparably asso- 
ciated witli the commercial history of the country, 
with the rapid growth and development of our mer- 
cantile navy, and, more lately, with our great national 
railway interests. With a steadiness and rapidity almost 
romantic he has pushed his way to a position in which he wields 
an immense influence over the material interests of his native 
land, and his energy, enterprise, and genius, are recognized 
the world over. From his ancestors, who were of the good 
old Holland stock which, over two centuries ago, settled 
that portion of the New Netherlands now known as New 
York State, he seems to have inherited the sturdy Knicker- 
bocker habits of industry which have so remarkably charac- 
terized his career. His father, whose name was also Cornelius, 
was a well-to-do farmer on Staten Island, in New York harbor, 
the island being, at that time, divided into large estates which 
were generally farmed by their owners, with especial reference 
to the supply of the city markets. In those days, almost every 
Islander kept his own boat for the purpose of carrying his farm 
products to the city ; and as the inhabitants increased and more 
extended facilities for communication became necessary, Mr. 
Vanderbilt fell into the custom, at times, of conveying to New 

York those who had no boat of their own. Out of this, and the 

b55 



006 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

demand for some public and regular communication, grew up a 
ferry, which he established in the form of a " perriauger," which 
departed for the city every morning and returned every after- 
noon. To this farmer-ferryman was born, on the 27th day of 
May, 179-i, a son, the subject of this sketch — and, even as a 
babe, full of voice, will, and muscle. As infancy merged into 
boyhood, these characteristics developed more distinctly into a 
restless activity of mind and body which seemed to take a 
strongly practical turn. Old paths of thought and action, 
and the teachings of books and schools, were (much to the 
chagrin of his parents) neglected, and he intuitively sought 
to draw his knowledge from Nature herselt, whose wondrous 
book, so full of infinite knowledge and suggestions, claimed all 
his thoughts and time, frequently even to the exclusion of his 
meals. At the age of sixteen he made his first step mto the 
world of activity and independent life in which he was ulti- 
mately to hold so regal a sway. Living upon the Island, and 
being of necessity much upon the water, he early developed a 
fondness for that kind of life, as affording the widest scoj e for 
his ambition. He, naturally enough, washed to have a sail-boat 
of his own, and soon made known the desire to his father. 
Tninking him yet too young and inexperienced to have the 
sole control of a boat, his fiither sought to discourage him — ■ 
but, finally, yielding to his importunate pleadings, he gave a 
qualified promise to furnish him with the necessary purchase- 
money, provided he would accomplish a certain amount of 
work upon the farm. The " stent" given, w^as no slight affair, 
as the father probably intended by it to foil his son's project ; 
and the latter soon found that it would require more time than 
he could well afford to bestow upon it, with his enterprise 
delayed. The boy's wit, however, did not fail him in this 
emergency — in his father's absence he summoned to his aid all his 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 657 

young companions in the neighborhood, witla whom he was a 
favorite, and bj their heartily-rendered assistance the allotted 
task was soon completed. Reporting the successful accomplish- 
ment to his mother, he claimed the reward — but was met with 
dissuasives, for her aversion to the proposed business was equal 
to that of her husband. Remonstrances, however, were use- 
less — and fearful lest his determined will, if thwarted in thia 
matter, might lead him to the still more to be dreaded alterna- 
tive of running away to sea — the sum of a hundred dollars was 
placed in his hands. Quickly hastening to the Port Richmond 
shore, he at once purchased a boat, which he had previously 
selected, joyfully took possession of his long coveted prize, and 
full of brilliant visions of future successes, set sail for home. 
But, alas, as the little boat, freighted with so many hopes, sped 
through the waves, it struck on a rock in the kills and the new 
fledged captain was barely able to run his vessel ashore before 
Bhe sank. Nothing daunted, however, the boy sought the: 
needed assistance, speedily had the damage repaired, and, in a. 
few hours later, brought his little craft, all safe and sound, 
alongside the Stapleton dock. He had now, in a measure, cut 
loose from his father's care ; and, as the owner and captain of a 
boat, had fairly launched upon life's broad sea, as a man of 
business. Older heads, and older and established reputations 
were to be competed with — and the boy-captain had the sense 
to see, and the courage to prove, that he who would make 
headway in the world's strife, must do so with stout heart and 
strong arm — working, not waiting, for coy Fortune's gifts. He 
was no idler — straightway he made vigorous attempts to secure 
business, and met with extraordinary success. He soon found 
plenty of remunerative employment in carrying, to and from 
New York, the workmen employed upon the fortifications then 

in process of construction, by the General Government, upon 
42 



658 MEN OF OUR DAY 

Slaten and Long Islands. Amid all bis success, however, his 
manly spirit of independence was not satisfied until, bj scrupu- 
lous and daily saving, from his first earnings, he was ena- 
bled to repay to his mother the hundred dollars she had given 
liira. The boy had, indeed, taken hold of life in earnest — • 
grasping its stern realities with a spirit far beyond his years. 
Among the self-imposed rules with which he sought to regulate 
his life, and which serve to show a fixedness of purpose aa 
invariable as the circuit of the sun, was a determination to 
spend less every week than he earned. This careful manage- 
ment soon produced its legitimate results, and ere long he was 
enabled to purchase another vessel of larger dimensions, and 
thus considerably to extend his business. And so he went on, 
until his eighteenth birthday found him part owner and captain 
of one of the largest perriaugers in the harbor of New York, 
and he shortly after became interested in one or two smaller 
boats engaged in the same business. His life, at this time, Avag 
a most active one, spent almost entirely upon the water, carry- 
ing freight and passengers, boarding ships, and doing every 
thing which came to his hand. In addition to all this vigorous 
day-work, he undertook and continued, through the whole war 
of 1812, to furnish supplies by night to one of the forts on the 
Hudson and another at the Narrows. It is said of him that 
•' his energy, skill and daring became so well known, and his 
word, when he gave it, could be relied upon so implicitly, that 
Corneile, the boatman, as he was familiarly called, was sought 
after far and near, when any expedition particularly hazardous 
or important was to "be undertaken. Neither wind, rain, ice, 
nor snow ever prevented his fulfilling one of his promises. At 
one time during the war (sometime in September, 1813), the 
British fleet had endeavored to penetrate the port during a 
severe southeasterly storm, just before day, but were repulsed 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 659 

from Sandy Hook, After the cannonading was over, and tlie 
garrison at Fort Richmond had returned to quarters, it was 
highly important that some of the of&cers should proceed to 
headquarters to report the occurrence, and obtain the necessary 
reinforcements against another attack. The storm was a fear- 
ful one ; still the work must be done, and all felt that there 
was but one person capable of undertaking it. Accordingly, 
Vanderbilt was sought out, and upon being asked if he could 
take the party up, he replied promptly : " Yes, hut I shall have 
to carry them under water part of the viay P'' They went with 
him, and when they landed at Coffee-House slip there was not a 
dry thread in the party. The next day the garrison was re- 
inforced. 

Yanderbilt also showed, in these earlier days, what he has 
frequently exemplified in his later life, that he was very tena- 
cious of his rights, and determined that no one should infringe, 
them. On one occasion, during the same war, while on hia 
way to the city with a load of soldiers from the forts at the 
Narrows, he was hailed by a boat coming out from the shore, 
near the Quarantine. Seeing an officer on board, young Yander- 
bilt allowed it to approach him ; but as it came nearer, he saw 
that it belonged to one of his leading competitors, and that the 
owner himself was with the officer. Still he awaited their 
approach, preparing to defend himself in case of any unauthor- 
ized interference. No sooner, however, were they alongside of 
his boat, than the officer jumped on board, and ordered the sol- 
diers ashore with him in the other boat, for inspection, etc 
Young Yanderbilt, seeing that the whole affair was a trick to 
transfer his passengers to his competitor, at once told the officer 
that the men should not move, that his order should not be 
obeyed. The military man, almost bursting with rage, hastily 
drew his sword, as if about to avenge his insulted dignity, when 



360 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

young Vanderbilt quickly brought him, sword and all, to the 
deck. It did not take him many minutes more to rid himself 
of the officer and his companion, and quickly getting under 
way again, his soldiers were soon landed, without further 
molestation, at the Whitehall dock." 

These anecdotes serve to illustrate the character of the man. 
By this time young Vanderbilt's labors had placed him in a 
position where he could reasonably entertain the prospect of 
maintaining a family and home of his own, and, on the 19th of 
December, 1813, he married Miss Sophie Johnson, of Port 
Richmond, Staten Island, and the next year took up his resi- 
dence at New York. About the same time he became the 
master and owner of the new perriauger "Dorad," which was 
at that time the largest and finest craft of that kind in the 
harbor of New York; and, in the summer of 1815, he built, in 
connection with his brother-in-law, De Forest, a schooner 
named the "Charlotte," which was remarkably large for her 
day, and which, under command of De Forest, was profitably 
employed as a lighter, in carrying Ireights between numerous 
home ports. Thus, up to the year 1817, with varied experi- 
ence but unvarying success, Mr. Vanderbilt continued in this 
business, improving the construction of vessels and adding to 
his reputation among nautical men, and with such profit that, 
in the four years preceding his twenty-third birthday, he had 
laid up the snug little sum of $9000 — hard won earnings. Yet 
his ambition was by no means satisfied. His comprehensive 
mind, ever on the alert to catch any thing new or valuable 
pertaining to his chosen profession, saw at an early date the 
inestimable advantages which would ultimately accrue to the 
interests of commerce from the use of steam, which had but 
recently formed a new application to the purposes of naviga- 
tion. Happening to become acquainted with Thomas Gibbons, 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. ^61 

of New Jersey, a large capitalist, then extensively interested lu 
the transportation of passengers between New York and Phila- 
delphia, he received from him an ofl'er of the captaincy of a 
little steamboat, at a salary of one thousand dollars per year. 
This, to a man who had always been his own master, and who 
was then engaged in suf6.ciently lucrative business, presented 
but few inducements. But Vanderbilt's prophetic ken antici- 
pated the triumphs of steam, and he had resolved to participate 
in, if not direct them. He therefore accepted the proffer, and 
assumed the command, in the fall of 1817, of a little steamer, so 
small, that its owner soon re-christened it as " The Mouse of the 
Mountain." In a few months he was promoted to the " Bellona," 
a much larger boat, just ready for her trial trip, and employed 
on the Philadelphia line, carrying passengers between New 
York and New Brunswick, to which place (after a temporary 
few months' stay at Elizabethport), convenience dictated the 
removal of his family residence. At that time, passengers en, 
route for Philadelphia, stopped at New Brunswick over night, 
taking early stage next morning to Trenton, and thence boat to 
Philadelphia. The stage-house at which travellers stopped over 
night, was the property of Gibbons, whose management of it 
proved unfortunate, and who was, therefore, induced to offer it, 
rent free, to his new captain, shortly after his removal to New 
Brunswick, if he would, in addition to his other duties, take 
charge of it — its proper keeping being, of course, an indispen- 
sable condition to the prosperity of the whole route. Vander- 
bilt accepted the proposition, and, during the remainder of hia 
business connection with Mr. Gibbons, conducted it so success- 
fully that it became a source of considerable profit. In 1827, 
he hired of Mr. Gibbons the New York and Elizabethport 
Ferry, which, under two successive leases of seven years each, 
he managed so well that it proved very profitable, although pre- 



662 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

viouslj it had been unremunerative. Twelve years had elapsed 
since he had entered Mr. Gibbons's employ ; and, during that 
time, his faithfulness, care, and persevering industry had so 
advanced the prosperity of the line that it was now netting, 
annually, the sum of nearly $40,000. Under his supervision, 
each new boat added to the line had been made better and 
fleeter than its predecessor, and his keen and fertile intellect 
was quick to make every new circumstance subservient to the 
interests of his employer and the improvement of steam 
navigation. 

To understand some of the difficulties with which Yanderbilt 
was surrounded, at the time he first became captain of the 
Bellona, we must recall the early history of steam navigation. 
It will be remembered that, in 1798, an act was passed by the 
Legislature of New York, repealing a previous act, and trans- ' 
ferring to Mr. Livingston, the exclusive privilege of navigating 
the waters of the State by steam. This act was from time to 
time continued, and Fulton was finally included in its pro- 
visions. In 1807, after the trial trip of the Clermont, the 
Legislature, by another act, extended this privilege, and in the 
following year, subjected any vessel, propelled by steam, to 
forfeiture, which should enter the waters of the State without 
the license of those grantees. These acts were in force when 
Vanderbilt entered the employ of Mr. Gibbons, and the Phila- 
delphia line violated the privilege thus granted, in case the 
boats stopped at the city of New York ; and hence, for a long 
time, whenever Yanderbilt ran a steamer in on the New York 
side of the river, as he was instructed by the owner to do, he 
was arrested, if he could be found. As an expedient to avoid 
arrest, he taught a lady how to steer the boat, and when it 
neared the New York dock, he would turn it over to her 
'iharge, and disappear himself; so that the officers were fro- 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 66S 

quently compelled to return their writs against him non est. 
At this time, it will also be remembered, the New York Court 
of Errors had pronounced these acts constitutional ; the New 
Jersey Legislature had passed retaliatory acts, and a suit 
against Gibbons was in progress in the United States Court. 
To make this line prosperous, under such difficulties, and 
against such opposition, was, of course, no ordinary task ; still 
it was at once accomplished, as we have stated. At length, and 
in 182J:, the Gibbons's case was decided. Chief Justice Marshall 
delivering the opinion of the Court, to the effect, that, under 
the Constitution of the United States, no State could grant an 
exclusive right of navigation, by steam or otherwise, on any of 
the principal rivers of the country ; and, as a consequence, 
navigation of the Hudson, and elsewhere, became free to all. 
With this obstacle removed, Vanderbilt went to work with 
renewed vigor, steadily pushing forward his employer's enter- 
prise, until it produced the remarkable revenue noted above. 

In 1829, Vanderbilt determined to commence business again 
on his own account, but met with the most strenuous ob- 
jections, and the most liberal inducements — even to the offer 
of the ownership of the entire Philadelphia route, on almost hia 
own terms — from Gibbons, who confessed his inability to run 
the line without him. But these offers were firmly yet kindly 
put aside, and Gibbons, finding the life of his enterprise had 
gone, shortly after sold out the entire business. Once again 
Vanderbilt was his own master, and possessed such an intimate 
knowledge of the details and practical management of steam 
navigation, as placed him in a most favorable position for 
further usefulness and success. The next twenty years of hia 
life we must sketch rapidly. Applying to his work, the same 
wisdom and energy which he had ever shown, he built, during 
this period, a very large number of steamboats, and established 



664 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

iteamboat lines on the Hudson, the Sound and elsewhere. Hia 
plan was to build better and faster boats, than those of his 
competitors, and to run them at the lowest paying rates. He 
was thus enabled, by furnishing passengers with the best and 
cheapest accommodations, to distance the corporations and 
companies, whose monopoly of the carrying trade had hither- 
to made travelling too expensive to be enjoyed by the many. 
It cannot be claimed, that in every act, he sought the public's 
welfare, yet the great result of his " opposition" lines has been 
decidedly beneficial to the community, for commercial growth 
and rivalry are inseparable, and competition is, proverbially, the 
life of healthy trade. Meantime, the gold of California had 
been discovered, and was drawing an immense rush of trade 
thitherward. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company began to 
run its steamers in 18-i8, and in 1849 the Panama railroad was 
surveyed and commenced. The same year, we find Mr, Van- 
derbilt, under a charter obtained from the Nicarauguan govern- 
ment, for a ship-canal and transit company, seeking another 
transit route, in connection with which he could establish a 
competing line between New York and the " golden land." This 
charter was subsequently enlarged by the grant of an exclusive 
right to transport passengers and freight between the two 
oceans, by means of a railroad, steamboats, or otherwise, and 
sepaiating the transit grant from the canal grant. In 1850, Mr. 
Vanderbilt built the Prometheus, and, in her, visited Nicaragua 
for the purpose of personally exploring the country, and satisfy- 
ing himself as to the practicability of the route. The harbor of 
San Juan del Sur, was fixed upon as the Pacific port — a little 
steamboat built, under his personal inspection, to run up the 
San Juan river — and finally, in the face of many obstacles, a 
semi-monthly line to California, via Nicaragua, was opened in 
July, 1851, and speedily became the favorite, as well as the 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 665 

cheapest route to Sau Francisco. In January, 1853, Yanfierbilt 
sold his many and large steamers, on both sides, to the Transit 
Company, acting as their agent for several months — and then 
his connection with it ceased, until he became its president in 
January 1856. During the invasion of Nicaragua by " Filibuster 
Walker," that general, to whom Yanderbilt had refused transpor- 
tation for his men and munitions, issued a decree (February, 
1856,) annulling all grants to the company, as well as its act of 
incorporation ; and, when the long series of plots and counter- 
plots to which this gave rise were settled, a sand-bar was found 
to have formed at the mouth of the San Juan, making it practi- 
cally useless. Mr. Vanderbilt had become a man of great wealth, 
and, in 1853, he conceived the novel, and, in some respects, 
grand design of making the tour of Europe, with his family, in 
a fine, large steamship of his own. 

For a single individual, without rank, prestige, or national 
authority, to build, equip, and man a noble specimen of 
naval architecture, and to maintain it before all the courts of 
Europe, with dignity and style, was an extremely suggestive 
illustration to the Old World, of what the energies of man may 
accomplish in this new land, where they are uncramped by 
oppressive social institutions, or absurd social traditions. 
Cornelius Vanderbilt is a natural, legitimate product of 
America. With us, all citizens have full permission to run 
the race in which he has gained such large prizes, while in 
other countries, they are trammelled by a thousand restrictions. 

Accordingly, a new vessel, called " The North Star," was 
built, as all his vessels are, under his own supervision, in a 
very complete manner, perfect in all its departments, and 
splendidly fitted up with all that could tend to gratify or please, 
and was the first steamer fitted with a beam engine, that ever 
attempted to cross the Atlantic. 



666 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

On Friday, the 11th of May, 1855, the comrijodore and his 
party set sail. In almost every country visited they were re- 
ceived by all the authorities with great cordiality, as well as 
gre-.it attention. At Southampton, the North Star formed the 
topic of conversation in all circles, and the party was honored 
with a splendid banquet, at which about two hundred persons 
sat down. When in Kussia, the Grand Duke Constantine and 
the chief admiral of the Russian navy visited the ship. The 
former solicited and obtained permission to take drafts of it, 
which duty was ably performed by a corps of Russian engineers. 
In Constantinople, in Gibraltar, and Malta, the authorities were 
also very cordial and polite. But in Leghorn (under the 
government of Austria) the vessel was subjected to constant 
surveillance, guard boats patrolling about her day and night — 
the authorities not being able to believe that the expedition waa 
one of pleasure, but imagining that the steamer was loaded with 
munitions and arms for insurrectionary purposes. Thus, after 
a very charming and delightful excursion of four months, they 
returned home, reaching New York, September 23d, 1853, 
having sailed a distance of fifteen thousand miles. This cer- 
tainly was an expedition worthy and characteristic of the man 
who undertook it, and met with that decided success which his 
efforts ever seem to insure. 

Mr. Vanderbilt's observations, while abroad, satisfied him of 
the necessity of largely increasing the facilities of communica- 
tion between Europe and America; and, soon after his return, 
he made an offer to the Postmaster-General to run a semi- 
monthly line to England, alternating with the Collins line, 
carrying the mails on the voyage out and home for fifteen 
thousand dollars. The Cunard line was at that time withdrawn 
from the mail service on account of the Crimean war, and his 
plan, therefore, was to provide for weekly departures, filling up 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, 667 

tliose thus left vacant. This proposition, however, was not 
accepted; but unwilling to abandon the idea, on the 21st of 
April, 1858, he established an independent line between New 
York and Havre. For this purpose he built several new steam- 
ships, and among them the Ariel, and finally the Vanderbilt, 
and the line was kept up with great spirit and success. Subse- 
quent to the building of the Vanderbilt, there was an exciting 
contest of speed between the boats of the different lines. The 
Arabia and Persia, of the Cunard, the Baltic and Atlantic, of the 
Collins, and the Vanderbilt of the independent line, were the 
competitors. Great interest was taken in the contest, as all 
will remember, but the Vanderbilt came out victorious, making 
the shortest time ever made by any European or American 
steamer. 

The subsequent history of this vessel, and the use which has 
since been made of it, are well known. In the spring of 1862, 
when the administration needed, immediately, large additions 
to its navy, to aid in carrying on its military operations (an 
occasion which many were eager to turn to their own advantage, 
at their country's expense). Commodore Vanderbilt made free 
gift of this splendid ship, which had cost $800,000, to the 
Government. For this magnificent act of patriotism he re- 
ceived, in January, 1864, a resolution of thanks passed by 
Congress, and approved by the President, and a gold medal, 
a duplicate copy of which was also made and deposited for pre- 
servation in the library of Congress. 

Commodore Vanderbilt (he was long since given the title ot 
commodore by acclamation, and as the creator and manager of 
so larg,e a fleet, he surely merited it) has, during his long career 
of activity, built and owned exclusively himself, upward of one 
hundred steamboats and ships — none of which have been lost 
by accident. He had extensive machine-shops, where the 



663 MEN- OF OUR DAT. 

machinery was made according to his own ideas, and his vessels 
were almost invariabl}'' constructed by days' work, under his 
constant supervision and from plans entirely his own. It was 
his practice, also, to employ the most deserving and trustworthy 
commanders, and never to insure a vessel or cargo of any kind, 
believing that "good vessels and good commanders are the best 
kind of insurance ; " and also, that " if corporations could make 
money in the insurance business he could." 

It is now nearly ten years since Commodore Vanderbilt began 
to withdraw gradually from his marine enterprises, and to con- 
centrate his energies and his vast capital and influence upon 
railways, and his movements have been attended with their usual 
success. He began with the Harlem Railroad, which had been 
the football of the speculators and unfortunate in all its man- 
agement. Its stock had ranged from forty to seventy dollars 
the share. He obtained a controlling interest in it, equipped it 
anew, and made it one of the best as it had previously been 
one of the poorest roads leaving New York. The stock went 
up to one hundred and seventy-five and even higher. Next 
he obtained control of the Hudson River Road, and re- 
formed its management, and then stretched out his hand and 
grasped the New York Central. His management was so suc- 
cessful that he met with little or no opposition, when he deter- 
mined to consolidate the New York Central and Hudson River 
in one gigantic corporation, and lease the Harlem, which he had 
now extended to Vermont, to the new corporation. The stock 
of this mammoth corporation was largely watered, but under his 
efficient management it has paid liberal dividends. He has 
bought up all the branches and collateral roads which could be 
bought or leased, to serve as feeders for his great line. At one 
time he had almost secured control of the Erie Railway also (it 
mii-ht have been better for the stockholders if he had sue 



CORNELIUS VANDKRBILT. 669 

ceeded); but the cage of unclean birds which in the spring of 
1872 were ousted from it, by their sharp practices kept him out, 
though not without heavy expense to themselves. He next 
turned his attention to perfecting his connection with the Pacific 
Railways, and now controls not only the Lake Shore, Southern 
Michigan, Chicago and Rock Island, and Chicago and North- 
western, but numerous other connecting roads, and runs his palace 
cars without change from New York city to the Golden Gate. Hi3 
only formidable competitor now for the monarchy of the railroad 
system of the United States is Col. Thomas A. Scott, the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad king. Scott has youth in his favor, but the old 
commodore is tough, and carries his seventy-eight years as jaun- 
tily as if they were not half that number. He controls to-day, 
through himself and members of his family, railway property of 
the value of nearly, and perhaps quite, three hundred millions of 
dollars. His personal wealth is vast. He is unquestionably one 
of the three richest men in America, the other two being Wil- 
liam B, Astor and Alexander T. Stewart, and it is doubtful 
whether either could tell the amount of their property within 
ten millions. Commodore Vanderbilt makes no pretensions of 
philanthropy. He is not even for his means a large or liberal 
giver, yet, as we have seen, he sometimes gives in a princely 
way. He became very much interested four or five years ago in 
the efforts of Rev, Dr. Deems to establish a " church for 
strangers " in New York, and finding that the University Place 
Church was for sale, a fine and substantial edifice, he bought it, 
and presented it to Dr. Deems. He has, we are glad to say 
been ever since a frequent attendant on the Doctor's ministra- 
tions. 

Yet amidst his close and continued application to the busi- 
ness of life, the kindly feelings of childhood have remained 
unchanged. The eagerness with which he has anticipated 



670 MEN OF OUR DAT. 

every desire of an aged mother, is only an evidence of the 
heart within him. He was as devoted to her in manhood, as 
she to him in early youth. The pretty home-like cottage con- 
structed for her under his eye, and in accordance with the tasto 
of both, surrounded by luxuriant vines and evergreens, was a 
continual joy to her during her life. There, near her old home, 
and overlooking the water, the scene of his early exploits, she 
happily lived, tenderly cared for, and, only a few years since, 
as happily and peacefully died. How consistent with all his 
conduct toward her was the thoughtfulness which prompted 
him, upon returning from his triumphal tour of Europe, to 
stop the steamer in passing up the bay, and give that mother 
his first greetings, and receive her welcome home. Few, aa 
they read, at that time, the newspaper accounts of his arrival, 
could have failed to notice, among the more exciting items, the 
statement of this simple fact, and to feel that it was an honor to 
the son as well as to the mother. 

The same kindliness of feeling he has always exhibited in 
every other position in life. Deceit and underhand dealing he 
has ever quickly detected and thoroughly hated, but frankness 
and honesty of speech and act have been sure to find a ready 
and kind response. During all his contests with men, he had 
exemplified the truth of this, ever being ready to act with the 
greatest generosity, when thus approached. A certain captain, 
interested in a line of boats to Hartford, took steps which 
Vanderbilt considered dishonorable, to injure his line of boats 
to the same place, and therefore Yanderbilt determined to run 
him off, and did it. About that time Captain Brooks, who is an 
intimate friend of the commodore, met the defeated party 
and asked him how he got on. " Why, I have put my hand 
in Vanderbilt's mouth, and of course I must give up," he 
replied. " But," said Brooks, " go and see him, and if you are 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 671 

frank to him, he will be generous to you." " Go 1" said he, 
" he would not see me." Yet afterwards he concluded to go, 
and sure enough, he came back not only with the difficulty 
healed, but with obligations conferred, which he will very long 
remember. 

Six feet in height, with a large strong frame, a bright clear 
expressive eye, thin white hair, and ruddy complexion, Mr. 
Vanderbilt combines in his temperament a perfect blending of 
the best vital motive and mental characteristics. His will, 
self-reliance and ambition to achieve success are immense, 
while integrity, self-respect and kindness of heart are not less 
strongly marked. Socially, he is one of the most affectionate 
of men. He is quick to read the characters and motives of 
others ; forms his own judgments with intuitive quickness and 
correctness ; executes his plans with rapidity and a conscious- 
ness of self-power. With such mental and vital characteristics, 
with or without education, the "Commodore" would, almost 
inevitably, have been at the head of any calling or profession 
which he might have adopted. Nature created him for a 
leader. 



THOMAS ALEXANDER SCOTT, 

RAILWAY KING. 



[T is greatly to the honor of most of our leading business 
men, as well as of some of our statesmen, that they are 
emphatically self-made men. Unfavored by fortune in 
their youthful days, struggling, perhaps, with gaunt 
penury, and while thirsting for knowledge as ravenously as the 
traveller in the desert thirsts for the cooling spring, they have 
been denied the opportunity to enter its halls and slake that 
thirst, and have been detained at the bench, the counter, or the 
manufactory, struggling wearily for a bare pittance for their 
own needs, or the support of those dear to them. If there is 
any one person endowed with all his natural faculties, who is 
excusable for not endeavoring to acquire a good and thonyugh 
education, that person is the child, who, after toiling through 
the long day to and even beyond his strength, finds that his 
only opportunity of improvement is in the evening hours. The 
more honor then would we bestow on the young clerk, mechanic 
or machinist, who, notwithstanding intense weariness of body, 
seeks most zealously for the opportunities of improvement. 
And when a lad thus struggles and fights his way up through 
diflSiculties which would appal an ordinary mind, and takes his 
position among the world's great men, he deserves to be reck- 
oned as a hero. It is in this class that Colonel Thomas A. 

Scott has won and maintained his position. 
672 



THOMAS ALEXANDER SCOTT 673 

Thomas Alexander Scott was born in the village of Lou- 
don, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, December 28tb, 1824:. Of 
his early childhood we know little. It must have V)een one of 
poverty and narrowness, for in a large family, of which he was 
one of the youngest children, he attended the village school for 
but a short time, and had but a single teacher, Eobert Kirby, 
of Loudon. His father died when he was but ten years of age, 
and even before that time he had been striving to earn a living 
as clerk in a little country store. At his father's death his 
home was broken up, and he went to reside with an elder mar- 
ried sister, near Waynesborough, Franklin county, whose hus- 
band had a small store, in which Thomas was employed for 
eighteen months. From thence he went for a short time to 
Bridgeport, in the same county, where an elder brother was en- 
gaged in trade. A few mouths later he had obtained a situa- 
tion with a good firm in Mercersburg. When he was fourteen 
years old, another brother-in-law who had been appointed col- 
lector of tolls on the State road at Columbia, sent for him to be 
his clerk, and a year or two after he became a clei'k in the ex- 
tensive warehouse and commission establishment of the Messrs- 
Leech, of Columbia, where he remained until 1847. During all 
these thirteen or fourteen years, he had sought in every way pos- 
sible to train himself for a business life. Intensely fond of 
study, he yet subordinated his study to his employer's interests,. 
and did everything with an order, system and judgment which 
would have been highly creditable to a man of twice his years. 
Everywhere his quickness and energy, his correctness, ability 
and integrity inspired all who had to do with him with con- 
fidence in his business character and uprightness. In 1847, he 
came to Philadelphia as chief clerk under A. Boyd Cummings, 
collector of tolls at the eastern end of the puV)lic works, lie 

did not become connected with the Pennsylvania Central Rail 
43 



674 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

road until 1850, when he was appointed General Agent of their 
Mountain or Eastern Division at Duncanville, When the 
Western Division was opened he was transferred to that, and 
remained there until the health of General Lombaert, the 
Superintendent of the road, failed, when he was called to take 
his place. In 1860, on the death of the Hon. William B. Foster, 
Vice-President of the road, Mr, Scott was elected to that posi- 
tion, and it was from that time that the Pennsylvania Central 
railroad began to comprehend its position and facilities as a 
great trunk road. The executive ability, order, method and 
enterprize of the new Vice-President had here for the first time 
their legitimate field of exercise, and the road began at once to 
take its appropriate place as one of the four great highways 
which were competing for the traffic of the continent. 

But there was higher work than this for Mr. Scott to under- 
take. The civil war had commenced, and our War Department 
was inadequate with its antiquated and contracted machinery to 
manage the aftairs of an army of more than a million men scat- 
tered over half a continent. Mr. Scott's executive ability was 
already known at Washington, and he was called thither as 
Assistant Secretary of War, having special charge of .the trans- 
portation of troops, and their movement from one section of the 
country to another. He was at one time directed by the Presi- 
dent to take possession of all the railroad lines of the Central 
States, and combine them into one harmonious whole, so as to 
render the Government service both rapid and certain. No 
other man had ever attempted so extensive a control of rail- 
roads as this, and it is safe' to say, that there were not half-a-dozen 
men in the country who could have done it successfully. The 
late Secretary of War, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, was one of the 
most tireless workers who ever occupied that position, and he 
had first and last at least a dozen assistants, all of them men of 



THOMAS ALEXANDER SCOTT. 675 

remarkable business capacity, but most of them broke down 
under the tremendous strain of the work which the war pro- 
duced. Mr. Stanton was accustomed to say, that the only two 
assistants he ever had whom he could not kill with over-work, 
were Thomas A. Scott and Charles A. Dana. 

Returning to his work as Vice-President of the Pennsylva- 
nia Central, Colonel Scott (he had received a staff commission 
from the War Department) began at once to develop the vast 
capacity for work there was in him, and while most men would 
have found the management of that great road and its connec- 
tions with the West sufficient to occupy all their time and 
thoughts, to him it was mere play. He accepted the Presi- 
dency of the "Pennsylvania Company," the corporation by 
which the entire system of roads west of Pittsburgh, which are 
owned or leased by the Pennsylvania Central, is operated, and 
in that capacity he controls and manages over 4000 miles of 
railroad. He took the Presidency of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way, when its affairs were in a condition of great confusion, and 
m a few short months brought them out into an assured 
success. He is the right arm and successful manager of the 
"Southern Railway Security Company," in which, profiting by 
his experience during the war, he has brought into one orderly 
and harmonious system, and under one general control, the 
larger part of the Southern railroads, greatly to their advantage 
and that of the public. He has taken an interest as counsellor 
and manager in many other great railway enterprises, among 
which we may name the Kansas Pacific, the Denver Pacific, the 
Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge, the Northern Pacific, 
the Texas Pacific, and other railways, including several on the 
Pacific coast. 

There must be a limit somewhere to the business capacity of 
even a man of Colonel Scott's comprehensive and methodical 



676 MEN OF OUR DAY 

mind. "We do not know that be has reached or even approached 
that limit, but when a man has the care of some ten thousand 
miles of railway on his mind, when it depends upon his move- 
ments whether a capital of four hundred or live hundred mil- 
lions of dollars shall prove profitable or unprofitable, it cer 
tainly behooves that man to keep his head "level." Much may 
be accomplished, and undoubtedly in his case much is accom- 
plished, by the rare power he possesses of dismissing at will all 
care and anxiety from his mind. In his "off" hours, no man is 
more blithe, gay and hearty than he. To see him on such 
occasions you would hardly suppose that anything more serious 
than the tie of his cravat or the fit of his gloves ever occupied 
his mind; but there comes a time sooner or later, when the 
spectre of brooding thought will not down at a man's bidding ; 
when he cannot shake off care so easily, and then the over- 
wrought brain revenges itself for its excessive toil, and the man 
must rest or die. From such a fate, we trust, this noble- 
hearted and greatly gifted son of Pennsylvania may long be 
spared, to be a blessing not only to the State but to the nation. 

Colonel Scott is not an active politician, and, indeed, cares but 
little for political questions. He has warm friends in both 
parties, but has generally when voting at all voted with the 
Republicans. In the multiplicity of names mentioned for the 
Presidency, at a time of such general political upheaval, it is not 
surprising that a man of his rare executive ability should have 
been thought of, but he himself has no aspirations in that direc- 
tion. It is said that some months ago some anxious politicians 
{ipproached him on the subject, and he replied, with a merry 
twinkle of his eye, and an evident allusion to his well-known 
propensity to taking long leases on every railroad within his 
reach : " No, gentlemen, I cannot afford it ; time is altogether 
too short. If I could have a ninety-nine years' lease, I might 
think of it." 



CYRUS WEST FIELD, 

THE FOUNDER OF ATLANTIC TELEGRATHY. 




HE FIELD famil}^ is one of those instances of which 
there are several in our national history, in which the 
greater part of the children of a large family springing 
from a respectable, but not specially eminent ancestry, 
attain high distinction either in kindred or diverse pursuits. 
The Edwards, tlie Dwight and the Woolsey families in various 
degrees belong to this class; its most conspicuous example is 
" the Beecher family ; " but the descendants of Eev. David Dud- 
ley Field, D.D., who died at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1867, 
are hardly less conspicuous though in more varied careers. 
Dr. Field had ten children, of whom nine grew up to maturity, 
viz. : seven sons and two daughters. Of the seven sons, David 
Dudley has attained high distinction and great wealth as a jurist, 
in Kew York City ; Timothy B. was a naval officer of great 
promise, but was lost at sea in 1836 ; Matthew D., a manufac- 
turer and civil engineer, has a high reputation in his profession, 
and has been a State Senator in Massachusetts ; Jonathan E., 
was a lawyer of great ability, several times a member of the 
Massachusetts Senate, and once or twice President of that body; 
Stephen J., also a lawyer, formerly Chief Justice of California, 
is now one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of 
the United States; of Cyrus W. we shall have more to sav. 
Kev. Henry M., D.D., is an eloquent preacher and writer, and 

677 



678 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

for some years past has been editor and proprietor of tbe New 
York Evangelist, a very popular and widely circulated Presby- 
terian journal. The two daughters were ladies of high intellec- 
tual ability. Both were married, the elder to a missionary, 
with whom she spent some years in missionary labors in Syria. 
Several of Dr. Field's grandchildren have also achieved dis- 
tinction. 

Cyrus West Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 
November 30th, 1819. He received a very thorough English 
and academical education, and at the age of fifteen went to New 
York as clerk in a mercantile house. After several years' ex- 
perience in that capacity, he entered the house as partner, and 
finally became principal. He was very successful, and in 1853, 
at the age of thirty-four, retired from business with an ample 
fortune. He spent six or eight months in travel in South 
America, and soon after his return was approached by Mr. F.N. 
Gisborne, Engineer and Telegraph operator, and the founder and 
chief promoter of the Electric Telegraphic Company, an organi- 
zation which had attempted the construction of a telegraphic line 
from New Brunswick to St. John's, Newfoundland, there to con- 
nect with a line of steamers to the Irish coast. This company 
had become bankrupt before the completion of their enterprize, 
and Mr. Gisborne was anxious to have their charter taken up 
by New York capitalists. Mr. Matthew D. Field, a brotlier of 
Cyrus, and an engineer by profession, had formed Mr. Gisborne's 
acquaintance, and became favorably impressed with his project, 
and he introduced him to his brother. Mr. Field was at first 
averse to the undertaking, but examining it carefully, and be- 
coming impressed with the feasibility of carrying a telegraphic 
wire across the Atlantic from St. John's, he began to give it 
more attention. He wrote at once to Lieutenant Maury, then at 
the head of the Naval Observatory at Washington, and author 



CYRUS WEST FIELD. 679 

of a work on "The Physical Geography of tlie Sea," inquiring of 
him concerning the practicability of carrying an insulated wire or 
wires across the ocean, i. e., whether there were any insurmount- 
able physical difficulties in the ocean bed. At the same time 
he addressed a letter to Professor S. F. B. Morse (lately deceased) 
inquiring as to the possibility of transmitting electro-magnetic 
signals to such a distance through the ocean. Lieutenant Maury 
replied, transmitting a report he had just made to the Secretary 
of the Navy of Lieutenant Berryman's continuous soundings 
across the ocean, at the very points between which Mr. Field 
had thought the cable should be laid, showing that there was 
an oceanic plateau crossing the ocean, whose depth nowhere ex- 
ceeded two miles, and whose surface, composed of the debris of 
microscopic shells unmixed with sand or gravel, was almost as 
level as a western prairie. Professor Morse came to visit Mr. 
Field, and demonstrated the feasibility of the transmission of 
magnetic signals through the ocean to much greater distances. 
Having thus satisfied himself of the practicability of the enter- 
prise, Mr. Field next undertoook to enlist several capitalists in 
it, and succeeded in persuading Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, 
Marshall O. Roberts, and Chandler White to join him in form- 
ing a company to undertake the work. Subsequentl\'- Professor 
Morse, AVilson G. Hunt, and an English Telegraphic Engineer, 
Mr. John W.Brett,- took some share in the enterprise. The asso- 
ciates visited Newfoundland, and procured from the provincial 
legislature a new and very favorable charter; bouglit up the pro- 
perty of the old Electric Telegraphic Company, and paid its debts; 
constructed nearly 550 miles of road and telegrapic lines from 
New Brunswick to Newfoundland, and at their direction Mr. 
Field visited England, and ordered a telegraphic cable to cross 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and this being lost, went again and 
procured another, which was successfully laid. At the end of 



680 MEN OF OUR DAY 

two years, and with an expenditure of about a million of dollars, 
nearly all of which had come from their own pockets, the asso- 
ciates had reached Newfoundland, and were ready for another 
step in advance. Mr. Field again visited England, empowered 
either to obtain additional subscriptions to the New York, New- 
foundland and London Telegraph Company, organized by himself 
and his associates two years before, or to found a new company 
to lay the cable alone. The latter alternative was adopted, a 
company organized with guaranties from the British Govern- 
ment, and its capital stock fixed at 350,000?.,=$!, 750,000. Mr. 
Field took 88,000/.,=$M0,000 of this stock himself, but subse- 
quently disposed of $185,000 of it here. The cable was made 
by Glass, Elliot & Co. The first attempt to lay it was made 
in 1857. The United Steamships Niagara and Susquehanna, 
and the British Steamships Agamemnon and Gorgon perform- 
ing the work under the direction of Mr. Field and his associ- 
ates. The cable broke Avhen three hundred and thirty-five 
miles had been laid, in consequence of the clumsiness of the 
paying-out machine. The ships returned to England and landed 
the remainder of the cable, and Mr. Field returned to the 
United States, to find that in the financial panic nearly his 
entire fortune had been swept away. The next year the effort 
to lay it was made again, and after two or tliree failures, proved 
successful so far that the cable was laid, and' imperfect commu- 
nication kept up between the shores of the Atlantic for nearly 
a month, when it gave out entirely. Meantime Mr. Field had 
received a succession of ovations, one of them so glowing that 
it set on fire the cupola and roof the City Hall in New York, 
and came very near destroying the whole of the vast building. 
But the sudden news on the 5th of September, 1858, that " the 
Atlantic Telegraph was dead," would have killed a man less 
sanguine and resolute. Mr. Field, however, went to England 



CYRUS WEST FIELD. 681 

repeated!}'-, and kept the matter in agitation, and under the en- 
couras^ement of added subsidies from the British Government, 
and the promise of guaranties if it should be made to write, 
succeeded in getting again under way. A new company was 
formed, called the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance 
Company, in which Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., the manufac- 
turers of the cable, Thomas Brassey and others, were large 
stockholders; the Great Eastern secured to lay the cable, and in 
the summer of 1865 the effort was made again with a greatly 
improved cable. Between twelve and thirteen hundred miles 
were laid, not without some slight accidents, when once more 
the cable was broken by being fouled under the bow of the 
Great Eastern. For nine days the persevering directors and 
crew grappled for the lost cable ; three times they brought it 
up for a mile or more from the bottom (here two and a half 
miles in depth), but each time their apparatus gave way under 
the terrible strain, and finally, marking carefully its location 
with buoys, they left it. Not yet, however, did the brave Field 
give up to despair. Again he crossed the ocean, and after try- 
ing several other plans organized a fourth companj', in which 
the previous companies became stockholders, with three million 
dollars capital, had another cable made, and in the summer 
of 1866 it was laid, and has proved a complete success from 
that time to the present. -More than this; the same expedition 
which laid this grappled for, and brought to the surface the end 
of the cable of 1865, spliced it, and successfully completed that 
also. In 1869, a third cable was laid by a French companv, 
which has since passed into the hands of the London company, 
and although we believe but two of the three are now workino- 
successfully, yet there is very little danger now of a loss of our 
communication with Europe by telegraph, especially as one 
or two other lines are in progress 



682 MEN OF OUR DAY 

Mr. Field's indefatigable zeal and persistency in thus strug- 
gling through thirteen years of discouragement and disaster to 
a final triumph, and his courage, which rose higher with each 
failure, are worthy of all praise. 

With his great enterprize, at last an assured success, and his 
outlays so long unproductive, at last yielding their golden 
harvest, it would seem that he would have been content to rest 
upon his laurels; but we notice that beside taking an interest 
in most of the telegraphic cables which connect the great divi- 
sions of the American continent and the adjacent islands, he led 
the way a few months' since in an application'to Congress for a 
charter for a Telegraphic Cable Company to cross the Pacific 
from San Francisco to Japan, taking the Sandwich Islands as a 
half-way house, and thus solving the problem of the Great Eng- 
lish poet and dramatist of "Putting a girdle round the earth in 
forty minutes." We have not yet heard that the company is 
fully organized, or the cable in process of manufacture, but just 
as sure as Cyrus W. Field has a controlling interest in it, it is 
bound to be carried through triumphantly. 



HON. EZRA CORNELL. 




[<^MONG the names of tte great benefactors of education, 
that of Ezra Cornell must always occupy a place in 
the front rank. Yery few men living or dead have 
contributed so largely to the diffusion of knowledge 
among men, as this plain, practical business man. Though 
deprived of the advantages of collegiate training in early life, 
he has sought to give to all classes the boon of a higher educa 
tion ; and he has done this so wisely and well, that numberless 
generations to come will rise up and bless him for it. 

Ezra Cornell was born at Westchester Landing, West- 
chester county, New York, January 11th, 1807. His 'parents 
were members of the Society of Friends. His father was by- 
trade a potter, and carried on the business extensively, at one 
time, in Tarrytown, afterward at English Neighborhood, New 
Jersey. Young Cornell made himself useful in his father's shop 
in attending to customers and delivering ware. 

In 1819, his father removed to De Ruyter, Madison county, 
New York, where he again established a pottery, and with the 
assistance of Ezra and a younger son conducted a farm. 

The advantages for early scholastic training which Mr. Cor- 
nell enjoyed were few, yet, such as they were, he eagerly 
availed himself of them. At De Ruyter, his father taught a 

district school during the winter terms, which he attended. 

633 



684: MEN OF OUR DAT. 

The last year of his " schooling," being then about seventeen 
years of age, he obtained, as it were, by purchase, he and his 
brother agreeing to clear four acres of wood-land in time to 
plant corn in the following spring. This was done, and an ex- 
cellent crop of corn secured, without the aid of a day's labor 
from other sources. Notwithstanding his limited facilities for 
tuition, Ezra made considerable advancement in the various 
bi-anches of common-school learning, and was even advised to 
teach on his own account. This advice he did not see fit to fol- 
low, but turned his attention to farming. In 1825, an incident 
occurred which called out his great natural mechanical ability. 
His father hired a carpenter to build a shop, and Ezra obtained 
permission to assist in preparing the frame. While the work 
was in progress, he pointed out to the carpenter an error in the 
laying out of one of the corner posts, and at the risk of a flog- 
ging, convinced him of his mistake. Soon afterward his fa- 
ther requested him to build a dwelling-house, and though he 
had never seen a book on architecture, taking the house of a 
neighbor as his model, he went bravely at it, and after weeks 
of persevering effort, although annoyed and thwarted by of- 
ficious and meddlesome persons, who were fearful that he would 
succeed, yet he finally triumphed in the construction of a sub- 
stantial and comfortable house, into which his father removed. 
The execution of this task obtained for him the admiration of 
his neighbors, and a good knowledge of carpentry. In 1826, 
we find the elder son leaving his father's house to seek his for- 
tune among strangers. During the next year he found employ- 
ment at Homer, Cortland county, iu building wool-carding ma- 
chines. In the spring of 1828, he went to Ithaca, and engaged 
with a Mr. Eddy to work in the machine shop of his cotton 
factory one year, at eight dollars per month and his board. His 
services were evidently appreciated, as he says himself: "I had 



HON. EZRA CORNELL. 685 

worked six montlis on this contract, when Mr. Eddj surj rised 
me one morning bj saying to me that he thought I was not 
getting wages enough, and that he had made up his mind to pay 
me twelve dollars per month the balance of the year. I 
thanked him and continued my labors. At the end of the year, 
I had credit for six months, at eight dollars per month, and 
seven months, at twelve dollars per month, having gained one 
month during the year by overwork. Twelve hours were cre- 
dited as a day's work, and I have found no day since that time, 
which has not demanded twelve hours' work from me." 

In 1829, the success gained by him in repairing a flouring- 
mill at Fall Creek, Ithaca, led to his effecting an engagement 
with the proprietor of the mill to take charge of it, at four 
hundred dollars a year. He remained in this position ten years, 
during which period he built a new flouring-mill, containing 
eight runs of stones. This latter mill he worked two years, 
turning out four hundred barrels of flour per day, during the 
fall or flouring season, and employing only one miller. He had 
so admirably adjusted the mechanism of this mill, that manual 
labor was only required to take the flour from the mill. 

The term of his engagement having expired, he next engaged 
in business of an agricultural nature, conducting it partly in 
Maine, and partly in Georgia. His brother was associated in 
this business. Their plan was to spend the summer in Maine, 
and the winter in Georgia. These operations led to an acquaint- 
ance which terminated in his becoming interested in rendering 
available the magnetic telegraph, for the purpose of communica- 
tion between distant places. 

Mr. Cornell's history, in connection with the early introduc- 
tion of telegraphing, is highly interesting. During the winter 
of 1842 and 1843, while in Georgia, he conceived a plan for em- 
ploying the State prison convicts of Georgia in the manufacture 



686 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

of agricultural implements ; and after thorouglily examining itg 
feasibility, went to Maine for the purpose of settling some un- 
finished business, preparatory to entering upon the execution of 
his project. While in Maine, he called upon Mr. F. O. J. Smith, 
then editor of the Portland " Farmer.''^ He was informed by 
Mr. Smith, that Congress had appropriated thirty thousand dol- 
lars toward building a telegraph, under the direction of Profes- 
sor Morse, between Baltimore and Washington, and that he 
(Smith) had taken the contract to lay the pipe in which the tel- 
egraphic cable was to be enclosed, and he was to receive one 
hundred dollars a mile for the work. Mr. Smith also informed 
Mr. Cornell that, after a careful examination, he had found that 
he would lose money by the job, and, at the same time, showed 
him a piece of the pipe, and explained the manner of its con- 
struction, the depth to which it was to be laid, and the difficul- 
ties which he expected to encounter in carrying out the design. 
Mr. Cornell, at this same interview, after the brief explanation 
which Mr. Smith had given, told him that, in his opinion, the 
pipe could be laid by machinery at a much less expense than 
one hundred dollars a mile, and it would be, in the main, a 
profitable operation. At the same time, he sketched on paper 
the plan of a machine which he thought practicable. This led 
to the engagement of Mr. Cornell by Mr. Smith, to make such 
a machine. And he immediately went to work and made 
patterns for its construction. While the machine was being 
made, Mr. Cornell went to Augusta, Maine, and settled up his 
business, and then returned to Portland and completed the 
pipe machine. Professor Morse was notified, by Mr. Smith, in 
regard to the machine, and went to Portland to see it tried. 
The trial proved a success. Mr. Cornell was employed to take 
charge of laying the pipe. Under his hands the work advanced 
rapidly, and he had laid ten miles or more of the pipe, whet> 



HON. EZRA CORNELL. 687 

Professor Morse discovered that his insulation was so imper- 
fect that the telegraph would not operate. He did not, how- 
ever, stop the work until he had received orders, which orders 
came in the following singular manner. When the evening 
train came out from Baltimore, Professor Morse was observed 
to step from the car ; he walked up to Mr. Cornell and took 
him aside, and said, " Mr. Cornell, cannot you contrive to stop 
the work for a few days without its being known that it is done 
on purpose ? If it is known that I ordered the stoppage, the 
papers will find it out, and have all kinds of stories about it." 
Mr. Cornell saw the condition of affairs with his usual quick- 
ness of discernment, and told the professor that he would make 
it all right. So he ordered the drivers to start the team of 
eight mules, which set the machine in motion, and, while driv- 
ing along at a lively pace, in order to reach the Eelay House, 
a distance of about twenty rods, before it was time to " turn 
out," managed to tilt the machine so as to catch it under the 
point of a projecting rock. This apparent accident so damaged 
the machine as to render it useless. The professor retired in a 
state of perfect contentment, and the Baltimore papers, on the 
following morning, had an interesting subject for a paragraph. 
The work thus being suspended of necessity, Professor Morse 
convened a grand council at the Eelay House, composed of 
himself, Professor Gale, Dr. Fisher, Mr. Vaile, and F. O. J. 
Smith, the persons especially concerned in the undertaking. 
After discussing the matter, they determined upon further 
efforts for perfecting the insulation. These failed, and orders 
were given to remove every thing to Washington. Up to this 
time, Professor Morse and his assistants had expended twenty- 
two thousand dollars, and all in vain. Measures were taken to 
reduce the expenses, and Mr. Cornell was appointed assistant 
superintendent, and took entire charge of the undertaking. Ho 



68S MEN OF OUR DAY. 

now altered the design, substituting poles for the pipe. This 
may be regarded as the commencement of " air lines" of tele- 
graph. He commenced the erection of the line between Balti- 
more and Washington on poles, and had it in successful 
operation in time to report the proceedings of the Conventions 
which nominated Henry Clay and James K. Polk for the presi- 
dency. 

Although the practicability of the telegraph had been so 
thoroughly tested, it did not become at once popular. A short 
line was erected in New York city in the spring of 1845, having 
its lower office at 112 Broadway, and its upper office near 
Niblo's. The resources of the company had been entirely ex- 
hausted, so that they were unable to pay Mr. Cornell for his 
services, and he was directed to charge visitors twenty-five cents 
for admission, so as to raise the funds requisite to defray ex- 
penses. Yet sufficient interest was not shown by the communi- 
ty even to support Mr. Cornell and his assistant. Even the New 
York press were opposed to the telegraphic project. The pro- 
prietor of the " New York Herald^'''' when called upon by Mr. 
Cornell, and requested to say a good word in his favor, emphati- 
cally refused, stating distinctly, that it would be greatly to his 
disadvantage should the telegraph succeed. Stranger still is it, 
that many of those very men, who would be expected to be en- 
tirely in favor of the undertaking, viz., men of scientific pur- 
suits, stood aloof, and declined to indorse it. In order to put up 
the line in the most economical manner, Mr. Cornell desired to 
attach the wires to the city buildings which lined its course. 
Many house-owners objected, alleging that it would invalidate 
their insurance policies by increasing the risk of their buildings 
being struck by lightning. Mr. Cornell cited the theory of the 
lightning-rod, as demonstrated by Franklin, and showed that the 
telegraphic wire would add safety to their buildings. Some 



HON. EZRA CORNELL. 689 

persons still refused, but informed him that could he procure a 
certificate from Professor Ren wick, then connected with Colum- 
bia college, to the effect that the wires would not increase the 
risk of their buildings, thej would allow him to attach his 
wires. Mr. Cornell thought the obtaining of such a certificate 
a very easy matter, as certainly all scientific men were agreed 
upon the Franklin theory. He therefore posted off to Columbia 
college, saw the distinguished savan, stated his errand, and re- 
quested the certificate, saying it would be doing Professor Morse 
a great favor. 

To his utter consternation, the learned professor replied, " No, 
I cannot do that."' alleging that " the wires u'oi^/J increase the 
risk of the buildings being struck by lightning." Mr. Cornell 
was obliged to go into an elaborate discussion of the Franklin 
theory of the lightning-rod, until the professor confessed him- 
self in error, and prepared the desired certificate, for which 
opinion he charged him twenty -five dollars. This certificate 
enabled Mr. Cornell to carry out his plans. 

In 1845, he superintended the construction of a line of tele- 
graph from Xew York to Philadelphia. In 1846, he erected a 
line from New York to Albany in four months, and made five 
thousand dollars profit. In 1817, he erected the line from Troy 
to Montreal, by contract, and was thirty thousand dollars the 
gainer by it, which he invested in western lands. He also in- 
vested largely in telegraphic stock generally, other lines having 
Deen put up by other parties, being confident in the ultimate 
success of the magnetic telegraph. These investments in the 
past fifteen years, have so increased in value as to make Mr. 
Cornell one of the "solid men" of the country. He certainly 
has deserved success, especially as he was foremost in carrying 
the telegraph through the gloomy days of its early career. 

As a gentleman of fortune, he has exhibited great liberality 
44 



690 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

by contributing largely toward many benevolent enterprises. 
In 1862 be was President of the State Agricultural Society; 
and while in London that year he sent several soldiers from 
England to the United States, at his own expense, who joined 
our army on their arrival at New York. In 1862-3 he was 
elected a member of the New York Assembly, and in 186-l-'5 
a member of the Senate. 

But the crowning glory of Mr. Cornell's career has been his 
munificent educational benefactions. He made Ithaca, New 
York, his home some years since, and discerning, in his quick 
way, the need of a public library there, he erected a building 
and gave an endowment of twenty-five thousand dollars, which 
he has since increased to fifty thousand, for the purchase of 
books, and the support of the necessary librarian, etc. 

At this time, two educational institutions had been started in 
central New York, intended to be State institutions, and with 
the promise of considerable endowments, if the State would 
lend its fostering aid in enabling them to get under way. These 
were the People's college at Ovid, New York, and the Agricul- 
tural college at Havana, New York. Both received large sums 
from the State, and a considerable amount from private benefac- 
tions, and were to divide between them the agricultural col- 
lege land grant of Congress, if they could comply with certain 
conditions. Both failed utterly, and rather from mismanage- 
ment than from lack of funds. 

Mr, Cornell had been an attentive observer of the course pur- 
sued by these two colleges, and had formed a plan for the erec- 
tion and endowment of a university which should not prove a 
failure. He was at this time a member of the State Senate, and 
having matured his plan, he asked for a charter for a univer- 
sity, to be located at Ithaca or its immediate vicinity, to be called 



HON. EZRA CORNELL. 691 

the Cornell uuiversitj, which he proposed to endow with the 
Bum of five hundred thousand dollars. 

The charter was granted, but with one condition, which re- 
flects more credit on the shrewdness, than the honor of the 
lobby. It was that he should be permitted to make this muni- 
ficent endowment of a university, for the benefit of the youth 
of the State, if he would, over and above the five hundred 
thousand dollars, bestow an additional twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars upon Genesee college, at Lima, New York. Most men would 
have turned, with loathing, from a Legislature that could have 
the meanness to couple such a demand with their offer of a 
charter ; but Mr. Cornell was too deeply interested in the 
promotion of education to draw back, and he met their demand, 
paid the twenty-five thousand dollars, and received his charter. 

The next year, finding that both the colleges referred to had 
failed to comply with the conditions on which they were to re- 
ceive the agricultural land grant, he asked it for his univer- 
sity on the same conditions, and received it. He had been, 
during all this time, busy in procuring the views and plans of 
the most eminent educators in regard to the organization of his 
university, and having increased his endowment to $760,000, 
he now took upon his own shoulders the location and sale of 
the agricultural land scrip, amounting to 990,000 acres, for the 
university, and with such success, that the ultimate endowment, 
from this source, will probably reach two millions of dollars or 
more. The complete and ample endowment of the university, 
in the speedy future, being thus placed beyond a contingency, 
he has superintended the erection of the needful buildings, for 
commencing the work of instruction, and in connection with 
the trustees of the university, elected Hon. Andrew White, an 
accomplished scholar, in the very prime of life, as president, and 
a large corps of able professors and lecturers, and to this faculty 



692 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

he confided the duty of settling the course of study, and the 
general principles on which education is to be imparted in the 
new university. The plan adopted, while by no means ignoring 
the classics, provides for optional courses of study, the require- 
ments in each being such as shall entitle the student, if he com- 
passes them, to a degree ; and they are so arranged, as to leave 
no loophole for any student to obtain his degree without severe 
and constant study, and an amount of attainment which, though 
more in the direction of his particular tastes, shall be fully 
equivalent to the demands of the best universities, either here 
or abroad. The university is most amply supplied with books, 
apparatus, museums, and all the appliances of successful study, 
which are to be found in any institution in the country, and its 
special and post graduate courses comprise many topics of study 
not hitherto connected with any university in the country. 

Other liberal souls have availed themselves of the opportu- 
nity of adding special endowments to the different departments 
of this great school ; and Cornell University, though an infant 
in years, has already taken its place among our collegiate insti- 
tutions of the first rank. 

A noble, grand, and praiseworthy benefaction is this; one 
whose blessed influences shall be felt in all the ages of the 
future, and shall exert an influence npon the nation, in en- 
larging its enterprise, elevating its purposes, and refining its 
intellectual aspirations. In Mr. Cornell's history, the young 
may see what industry and enterprise can accomplish ; the 
mechanic may learn the results of energy, and the possibility 
of the combination of a great success with an active benevo- 
lence ; and the rich may find that a wise beneficence brings in 
the largest revenue of happiness, and that it is better for a man 
of wealth to be his own executor, then to leave his fortune to 
be wasted by interminable lawsuits, and the bitter quarrels of 
heirs who neither knew nor loved him. 



DANIEL DREW. 



rj^'T would seem probable to an abstract reasoner that men 
"^ j whose early advantages for education were very limited, 
C^y but who by their enterprise and native capacity for 
^ business have amassed large fortunes, would not bestow 
any considerable portion of their hard earned wealth on educa- 
tional institutions, however charitable might be their disposition 
toward other objects. Experience proves this deduction incor- 
rect. The largest benefactors to education, in the present age 
certainly, have been men who not only never received instruc- 
tion within college walls, but had but a scanty share even of 
the ordinary advantages of the district school. Peabody, Vassar, 
Cornell, Packer, Jay Cooke, are all examples of this, and the 
subject of our present sketch is not less remarkable in this 
respect than the others. 

Daniel Drew was born at Carmel, Putnam county, New 
York, July 29th 1797. His early years were passed on his 
father's farm, and his education in youth was only such as a 
country district school in that rocky farming county afibrded. 
"When fifteen years old his father died, leaving him to carve a 
fortune for himself. He directed his attention chiefly to the 
personal driving of cattle to market, and selling them, until 
1829, when he made New York city his permanent residence, 

and there continued the cattle trade by establishing a depot, 

693 



694 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

and purchasing largely through agents anl partners. In 1834, 
Mr. Drew was induced to take a pecuniary interest in a steam- 
boat enterprise. From that time his history is identified with 
the inception and growth of the steamboat passenger trade on 
the Hudson river. By shrewd management, low rates of fare 
and good accommodations, the line which Drew promoted grew 
in favor with the travelling community, notwithstanding the 
powerful opposition brought to bear on it by other steamboat 
men, among whom was Commodore Vanderbilt. Competition 
ran so high, that at one time the steamboat Waterwitch, in 
which Drew had invested his first venture, carried passengers 
to Albany for a shilling each. 

In 1840, Mr. Isaac Newton formed a joint stock company, in 
which Drew became the largest stockholder. This was the 
origin of the famous " People's Line," which commenced busi- 
ness by running new, large, and elegantly fitted-up steamboats, 
and from time to time added new and improved vessels to their 
running stock. When the Hudson river railroad was opened 
in 1852, it was confidently expected by many that the steamboat 
interest was doomed. Drew thought otherwise, and refused to 
accept the advice of his friends, who admonished him to sell 
his boats and withdraw from a business about to fail. The 
event justified his course. The railroad served but to increase 
travel, and rendered the steamboats more popular than ever. 
The large steamers now attached to the " People's Line," which 
command the admiration of every visitor and traveler on 
account of their superb decorations, and the extent and com- 
fortable character of their accommodations, attest the prosperity 
attendant upon the management, a leading spirit of which Mr. 
Drew has been from the beginning. The Dean Richmond, St. 
John, and Drew are unsurpassed for model, machinery, speed, 
and finish, by any river steamboats in the wide world. 



DANIEL DREW. 695 

Mr. Drew bas not only boldly adventured in " steamboatiug," 
but has won reputation and wealth in the much more uncertain 
sphere of stock-brokerage. In 1840 he formed a co-partnership 
with Mr. Nelson Taylor and Mr. Kelly, his son-in-law, in that 
business, which was carried on with marked success for more 
than ten years. Both these partners, although much younger 
than Mr. Drew, are sleeping in the tomb, while he is still 
employing some of his large capital in the same line through 
confidential hands. He has been for some years past an active 
director and very large stockholder in the Erie and several 
other of our trunk railroads, and his transactions in the stocks 
and bonds of these roads have been very large. 

The noble deed which has brought him into special promi- 
nence, and rendered his name, like those of Cornell and Pea- 
body, a synonym for active benevolence, is the founding of the 
Drew Theological Seminary, at Madison, Morris county. New 
Jersey. To this end Mr. Drew, at the recent centennial of 
Methodism, offered half a million dollars. The property pur- 
chased for the seminary is pleasantly situated in one of the 
most thriving towns, and in the midst of some of the finest 
scenery in northern New Jersey. Its distance from New 
York city is only twenty-eight miles. 

Besides this large benefaction, Mr. Drew has contributed 
extensively to various religious and educational institutions, 
among which the Wesleyan University and the Concord 
Biblical Institute are prominent. To these institutions he has 
given in all about $150,000. 

In Putnam county he owns upward of a thousand acres of 
land, on which large numbers of cattle are raised for the 
market. The pursuits of his early manhood have for him still 
strong attractions, but here again his management is marked 
by a generous spirit. On this estate he has been chiefly instru- 



696 MEN OF OUR DAY. 

mental in the building of a church and school-house. In the 
latter, the advantages of a good education are afforded gratui- 
tously to the children of the place. lie has also established and 
endowed with about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars an 
excellent female seminary at Carmel, the county seat of this 
county, intended for the higher education of young women of 
the Methodist Church, to which he has recently made over this 
princely gift. 

In form and physiognomy Mr. Drew is not especially impres- 
sive. His height is about six feet, his person slender, and his 
general expression and manner unassuming and mild, but firm. 
He stands before us as an example of the persevering, energetic, 
shrewd, and successful business man, and not only so, but also 
as an example of the practical workings of an earnest and sin- 
cere philanthropy. 



THE END. 



